


He Doesn’t Like Me

by wjmoon (sodapeach)



Category: X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drinking, Falling In Love Over A Weekend, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, some bad words, they’re whipped your honor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21596782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodapeach/pseuds/wjmoon
Summary: After a night of drinking with friends, Wooseok wakes up in the home of someone he knows for a fact doesn’t like him. At least he thinks he doesn’t.
Relationships: Cho Seungyeon | Seungyoun/Kim Wooseok | Wooshin
Comments: 83
Kudos: 521





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! I hope you enjoy this little one shot! It was supposed to be roughly 1k of drunk shenanigans, but it’s uhh... not. Anyways, I hope this makes you smile a little!!!
> 
> Thank you for your continued support for all 11 members of X1!

“I don’t feel like going tonight,” Wooseok said, tugging on his own clothes like they didn’t fit him right at all, like he had borrowed them from someone else’s closet.

“Then don’t,” Seungwoo said. “No one is making you, but if you don’t want to, I’ll tell everyone you got food poisoning.”

It was a little late to bail. They were already halfway to the bar when Wooseok’s stomach started to churn with nerves. It was Yohan’s special day. He won a gold medal, and wanted to throw away all of his training by turning his own liver inside out, and he had invited all of his friends to do it with him. Other than Yohan, Seungwoo was the only one Wooseok counted on to be there that he knew, and not that he disliked any of Yohan’s other friends, he just had a difficult time warming up to new people, but that didn’t matter because as they walked closer, the bar sign came into view and there was really no point in turning around then, especially since he had bothered to dress up so nicely.

“How long do you think this will take,” Wooseok said, pulling at a loose thread inside of his pocket, so uncomfortable he couldn’t stand it.

“Just a few hours,” Seungwoo said. “You don’t have to stay all night. A few drinks in, no one will mind if you take a cab home.”

Wooseok hummed. “What about you?”

“I’m going to keep an eye out for him, I guess,” he sighed. “Hangyul at least behaves when I’m around to stop them from lighting anything on fire, but he’s so busy trying to impress him that he’d let Yohan light the match.”

Wooseok nodded, but his mind wandered somewhere else. If Hangyul was there, which, of course, why wouldn’t he be, his  _ other _ friend would be there, and that was something Wooseok hadn’t considered when he dressed for what could have passed for a dinner among coworkers.

There was something about Seungyoun that made him nervous. There was absolutely nothing straight laced or boring about him, and that made Wooseok feel straight laced and boring himself, but he was nice. He was stupid nice. He never had a bad thing to say about anybody, and he greeted everyone he met warmly, even some so boldly as to hug them directly (not that Wooseok was watching).

Everyone except for Wooseok.

Any time they ran into each other either at these little get togethers or somewhere on the outside away from social constructs, he always greeted him awkwardly, never looking him directly into his eyes and never bothering to strike up a conversation, but he never had a problem talking up a storm with Seungwoo. Or Hangyul. Or Yohan. Or Jinhyuk. Or Byungchan. Or literally anyone else who they met up with. So he accepted that he just didn’t like him, and moved on. That was fair. A lot of people didn’t like him, but it was usually only the people who didn’t take the time to get to know him. The thing was, Seungyoun, the famous social butterfly, never bothered to get to know him either.

“You should smile,” Seungwoo reminded him. “Someone might think you’re pissed off.”

Wooseok laughed, used to hearing about his  _ resting bitch face _ . “I was just thinking.”

“Good,” he said. “Because you won’t have many opportunities to do that for the rest of the night.”

Wooseok rolled his eyes. He wasn’t going to get  _ that  _ drunk.

Wooseok was not a very smart man. He had an above average intelligence, reasonably good sense, and a firm grasp of his own limits, all of which he completely tossed aside the moment he stepped through the door.

They were late, and Wooseok’s nerves were already getting to him. He and Seungwoo had to squeeze through a moderately sized crowd to get to Yohan to tell him they were there, and he wondered to himself how many people he had actually invited.

He was surrounded by people he didn’t know, and judging by the looks of them, they must have been athletes too. He was desperate to see a familiar face, and he quickly learned to be careful what he wished for.

Hangyul saw them first and waved with his free hand with a beer bottle clutched loosely in the other, choosing to celebrate the slow way. Wooseok wasn’t a big fan of beer, preferring sweeter wines that made him feel like he was drinking fruit juice, but he didn’t guess that that was the right place to ask for a glass. Judging by the beeline Seungwoo made for him, they were going to cling to him for the night at least until everyone else started to go home. What Wooseok did not count on, and what he should have counted on, was that only a few steps away, Hangyul’s best friend who wasn’t Yohan lingered nearby, having his own conversation with a few guys Wooseok hadn’t met before.  _ So he knows them too. I guess he does know everybody. Except me. _

“Hey, Seungwoo and Wooseok are here,” Hangyul said, slapping him on the back. He turned around, startled, but then his face lit up fast enough that no one else noticed except for Wooseok who was keen on observing him for some reason. His eyes scanned over the top of Wooseok’s head, not even registering that he was there, all the way to Seungwoo who he greeted warmly and enthusiastically. It was one thing to be ignored, but to  _ literally  _ be looked over... it was really too much.

“I’m going to go get a drink,” Wooseok called out to no one, not that anyone was listening, he guessed. And that was where the trouble began, and he was well on his way to making a giant fool of himself.

  
  


Wooseok had absolutely no idea where the hell he was. He knew that it was dark, it smelled like cherries and incense, and that he wasn’t in his bed. He was in  _ someone’s  _ bed, and then he remembered that if he was waking up in someone’s bed, he probably did something terribly stupid the night before.

His head was pounding from the hangover and his tongue was swollen two sizes too big for his mouth, and the smell of something that he couldn’t keep down made him want to swallow a whole pack of breath mints. It didn’t matter what mistakes he made, because he was surely on his deathbed. Did it count as his deathbed if it was someone else’s sleeping bed? He would have to ask in the next life because there wasn’t much time left according to how fucking awful he felt. 

He raised his hand to wipe the sleepiness from his eyes and noticed something strange. He was in a sweatshirt that was much too large for him and the hand openings were tied at the ends like tiny boxing gloves so that he couldn’t get out. He wasn’t wearing any pants, but he didn’t  _ feel _ like anything had happened to him. If so, whoever took him home must have had a weird no–hands fetish, and Wooseok decided it was best that he got the hell out of there before he had to answer for it. He hoped for a moment that he had gone home with Seungwoo, but Seungwoo’s room smelled more like  _ Seungwoo.  _ This was a stranger’s bed, and to Wooseok’s horror, he was still in it.

Without the use of his hands, getting out of bed proved to be a challenge. Whoever the owner was apparently slept with way too many blankets and pillows for a decent person, and it made Wooseok feel like he was crawling out of a marshmallow. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that whoever it was had tried to wall him in like a princess locked away in a tower. Wooseok huffed. The person who brought him home was definitely going to get a piece of his mind before giving him an explanation of how he got there in the first place. He couldn’t believe Yohan would have such a friend that would take advantage of one of his closest and dearest friends. It was appalling!

His feet hit the floor, and he almost lost his footing. He was lightheaded from the hangover and probably not in the best position to shout at anyone for the fear that if he opened his mouth too wide, all of his insides would fall out onto the floor.

It took him a while to fiddle with the handle without hands, but he eventually got the door open. The whole apartment was dark, and he wondered if he had gone home with Dracula, but an awful stench hit him that made his stomach flip.  _ Oh god, what is that. _

He followed the smell through the apartment, a tied sweater paw covering his nose as it became too strong to breathe through. He wasn’t sure whose back he was staring at, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t going to be happy when he found out.

“Hi,” he said quietly, his throat raw from the night before.

“Good morning, sunshine,” he said, too brightly, not turning back to him.  _ That voice… that voice… _ “How bad is your hangover?”

Wooseok groaned in response. He looked over his shoulder at him just enough for Wooseok to see his face, and his knees buckled.  _ “What are you doing here?” _

“It’s my house,” Seungyoun laughed. “Go sit down. This will be done in a minute.”

Wooseok did what he was told, only because he wasn’t used to Seungyoun talking to him, and apparently he was inside his house with his hands tied and no pants on. He sat at the small table wedged in the corner and shoved his hands in his lap to help cover himself. As if he couldn’t feel more humiliated.

“Here you go,” he sang cheerfully, his voice an octave too much for someone with a hangover as brutal as his, but he was sure by the smug expression on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing. He set the bowl of something liquid and orange that was probably supposed to pass for soup in front of him. “Eat up.”

Wooseok looked at him flatly and blinked.

“What’s wrong,” Seungyoun asked, drawing his mouth into a frown.

He raised his bound arms up and exhaled sharply. Seungyoun broke into a smile and laughed brightly. “Oh right.”

He untied the knots holding Wooseok’s hands hostage, and once he was free, he flexed his cramped fingers and pushed the sleeves to his elbows. “Was this necessary?”

“Yes,” he said, getting up again to get him a bowl of rice to go with the mysterious orange broth. It’s not that he wanted to make things worse for himself, but based on the current state of his attire and the fact that someone who he knew for a fact openly disliked him was making him breakfast, he had to ask.

“Did we…”

“Hmm? Oh no,” he said. 

“Oh,” Wooseok said, relieved

“Not for a lack of trying,” he mumbled. Wooseok looked at him in shock. Seungyoun had tried to sleep with him? He caught Wooseok’s expression and clarified. “On your part, not mine.”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s hard to believe.”

“It’s true!” He defended himself. “Why do you think I had to tie up your sleeves! The second you came through the door, you kept trying to take your clothes off! I had to sit on you to make you put on my sweatshirt because I couldn’t stop you from pulling your own buttons off!”

Wooseok covered his face in horror. He wasn’t ready to believe it. He absolutely would not have believed it. But there’s no way Seungyoun would have known that he had a habit of tearing off his buttons when he was drunk. It wasn’t his fault they got in the way.

“Don’t worry,” Seungyoun added, waving his hand. “I was only joking about the  _ trying.  _ I think you thought you were in your own house.”

Wooseok sighed and rubbed his temple. “Probably.”

“How much do you remember?”

“I vaguely remember going to the bar,” he said, his voice sticking to the back of his throat. “I think I went with Seungwoo.”

Seungyoun looked at him in a way that would have usually accompanied a  _ yikes  _ and gestured towards the bowl. “Hurry up and eat. You look like death.”

“Thanks,” he said, sticking a spoon into the broth and cutting through a thick layer of oil he wasn’t sure he trusted. He scowled. “What is this?”

“It’s hangover soup,” he said like it was obvious, but it didn’t look like any hangover soup Wooseok had eaten before. It was too… viscous. “It’s an old family recipe, but you better eat it before it gets cold.”

“Aren’t you going to have any?”

Seungyoun shook his head. “I’m not hungover.”

Wooseok huffed. It was going to be as gross as he expected, but if he had been even remotely a terror in this man’s life, the least he could do was try his terrible cooking. He brought a shaky spoon to his lips and tasted it, and it was just as awful as he thought it would be. It was salty and greasy, and it was even spicier than he liked. He scowled and shook his head, but before he could verbally and thoroughly complain, a memory of himself stumbling through Seungyoun’s apartment like he owned the place emerged. He closed his eyes in horror as he remembered the way he pulled his own clothes off, stripping down to the bare essentials, and throwing himself at poor Seungyoun who was doing his best to keep Wooseok’s hands to himself. He remembered kicking off his pants and taking out a table lamp in the process and running to the bedroom to be wrestled down and forced into a sweatshirt with the hands tied like a child with chickenpox.

“Oh my god,” Wooseok cried out. He dropped the spoon on the table and covered his face. “Oh my god!”

“Good soup, isn’t it,” Seungyoun said, unbothered. He sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.

“Did I…” 

“Yep.”

“I tried to…”

_ “Yep.” _

“I’m so sorry,” he said, his face redder than the soup. He had never thrown himself at anyone before, that he could remember, and he was sure that if Seungyoun hadn’t been deceptively strong, he would have made a terrible mistake. 

“You defiled me,” Seungyoun said quietly like he was scarred for life, but the smile on his face assured Wooseok that he was only teasing him.

“Shut up!” he cried out, earning a fit of giggles. In all the years they had known each other, he had never made him smile or laugh like that before. Other people had and easily, but not him. Something about it made him self conscious. Or maybe it was just his bare legs sticking to the chair. He waited patiently for Seungyoun’s amusement to wear off before he asked his next question, since Mr. Giggles McSmartyPants knew all the answers. “How did I get here?”

“Well,” he said, clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth and looking off to figure out how to arrange his story. “Do you want my version or the soup version?”

“Both please,” he said. If he was going to get punched in the face with the memory of himself acting like an idiot, he at least wanted to know a witness’s perspective first. Plus, Seungyoun was actually talking to him for once, and even though the circumstances weren’t ideal, he wanted to feel what it was like to be an insider. 

He hummed, collecting his thoughts. “You were drunk.”

“Yes.”

“You were  _ really _ drunk,” he added.

“I got that.”

“It was late, and we needed to get you home,” he recalled. “We called you a taxi, but you wouldn’t tell the driver where you lived.”

Wooseok idly ate more of the soup, and immediately regretted it. He remembered a few guys who he didn’t know along with Seungyoun who he barely knew trying to shove him into a taxi, but he had his arms and legs on the frame of the car and used all of his little drunk demon strength to hold himself out while crying out  _ no!!!  _ defiantly.  _ “Oh my god.” _

“Mhm,” he nodded. 

“Where was Seungwoo?” He asked, knowing Seungwoo would have never left him alone like that.

He gave him another one of those  _ yikes  _ expressions. “Uhh, I wasn’t really paying attention, but at some point you yelled at him and threatened to climb him like a tree and pull his nose off.”

“Yep, that’ll do it,” Wooseok said, putting the spoon down. He didn’t need to remember that to know what he had done. “Go on.”

“So, we needed to get you home, you  _ very much  _ wanted to go home, but you wouldn’t tell us where you lived,” he said. 

“Then how did I end up here at  _ your  _ house?”

“I’m getting to that,” Seungyoun said. “So I got in the cab. I was a little drunk, but not as much as you were, and the other guys didn’t know you, and not that I don’t trust them, but I would have felt better taking you home myself than sending you off with someone you don’t know that well because then nothing bad could have happened.”

Wooseok swallowed. He didn’t know him that well, either. He knew his name, and he knew his face enough to recognize him in a crowd, but they didn’t know each other, and it wasn’t like it was a general mutual casual acquaintance because Seungyoun actively ignored him whenever possible, but yet he was concerned about his well being? It didn’t make sense.

“So, I got in the cab,” he continued. Wooseok tried the soup again, growing a fondness for its peculiar taste, and as he told his story, the memories fell into place. 

Seungyoun’s story said that he told him to get in, but Wooseok remembered him patting the seat next to him and batting his eyelashes enough to coax him with red cheeks from drinking all night. He remembered getting into the backseat and putting his head on his shoulder and clinging onto him like a useless baby. “The driver couldn’t leave because you wouldn’t tell him your address, and I couldn’t call Seungwoo because you wouldn’t unlock your phone, so I brought you here.”

Wooseok covered his face again, still hung up on the way he buried his face into Seungyoun’s neck while Seungyoun actively fought him to get his phone from him so he could call for backup. “Oh boy.”

He looked up to offer another apology and noticed the slightly purple mark on the side of the other man’s neck and firmly swore to never drink again. Seungyoun hummed and nodded. “That’s all I was there for, so if you want to know anything else, you’ll have to finish the soup.”

He got up from the table and wandered off somewhere, leaving Wooseok to face the horrors of his own bad decisions in the bowl of a viscous bowl of hangover soup that tasted as bitter as his memories. So he had thrown himself at him after calling Seungwoo a tree and holding onto the side of a taxi cab like a giant spider. He then took off all his clothes and had to be manhandled to keep himself from stripping naked. And if his presumptions were correct, Seungyoun had walled him in with a fortress made of pillows in his own bed to protect himself from Wooseok who had gone completely feral.

He couldn’t make himself drink anymore of the soup, even if it was helping his hangover. His head still hurt, but it was almost better enough to be able to turn the lights back on again. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to remember anything else. He wanted to properly apologize for acting the way he did and get out of there so they could resume not speaking to each other the way it was supposed to be.

He cleaned up from breakfast, not the type to leave dirty dishes behind in someone else’s home before wandering through the apartment to find him. 

“Do you happen to know what I did with my pants,” he asked, crossing into him in the hall.

“Ah! Yeah, let me get your clothes for you,” he said. He went back into his room and came back with Wooseok’s discarded clothing, and Wooseok found that he had ruined his own shirt. “Just wear the sweatshirt. It’s old, I don’t care.” 

“Thanks,” Wooseok said before ducking into the room to get dressed in private. He wasn’t sure why he necessarily needed to since he had already seen him in his underwear, but it felt like the right thing to do. 

He turned on a light and found a mirror. He  _ did  _ look like death, but he supposed it didn’t matter what Seungyoun thought of him.

He sneaked off to the bathroom to wash his face and gurgle enough mouthwash to cover up the lingering odor from the night before.

“There’s a toothbrush in the top drawer,” he called out, hearing the water run.

“Thanks,” Wooseok called back. At least brushing his teeth made him feel less like the gum underneath someone’s shoe.

He emerged, slightly less disgusting than he was before and ready to find his way home. He wasn’t sure how far they lived from each other or if he needed to take a cab or a train, but he had to get out of there so they could pretend like it never happened.

“Thanks for dealing with me,” he said, finding Seungyoun on the couch looking less intense than he was used to. Before, when they met in public he was this person who everyone liked but Wooseok would never be close to. He was too charismatic and dynamic, but there he was in his pajamas with his hair sticking up folded up on his couch in his own home looking like any neighborhood kid.

“You leaving?” He asked, muting the television he was already quietly watching low enough that it wouldn’t disturb him.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said.

“You don’t have to,” Seungyoun said. “You like games right?”

“How did you know that,” Wooseok asked, surprised. It wasn’t really something anyone other than Seungwoo knew in their extended circle. 

“You showed me all of your achievements and trophies you had saved on your phone on the way here,” he said.

“Oh my god,” Wooseok felt another headache coming on.

“No, it was cute,” he said. “I didn’t know you liked things.”

Wooseok snorted, ignoring the fact that he said anything about him was cute. “Who doesn’t like things?”

“I mean, I’ve never seen you get excited about anything,” Seungyoun said. “Not that I don’t think you would  _ like  _ things.”

“Oh,” Wooseok said. It wasn’t his fault he was shy around people he didn’t really know. Of course he liked things.

Sensing an awkwardness, Seungyoun continued, and the urgency was jarring. Is this how other people felt around him? “Plus, you said you were going to kick my ass, and after seeing you flop around like a drunk house cat, I think you owe me a chance to prove you wrong.”

Wooseok shook his head. “You don’t want to do that to yourself.”

“Try me,” he taunted him. He patted the seat next to him to coax him in the way he had in the cab the night before, and Wooseok rolled his eyes in disbelief, but his legs moved towards him anyway. He sat down next to him, feeling even more shy and out of place than he already did. Up close he could see the faint gray shadow of stubble around his mouth and the shadows under his eyes. He must not have slept well, but how could he, kicked out of his own bed. He also got a better look at the mark on his neck that Wooseok had left, and his stomach flipped. He reached up and pointed to the mirrored place on his own neck and frowned. 

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Oh this?” he looked back at him, surprised, before smiling again. “Yeah, you got mad and bit me when I wouldn’t let you have your phone last night.”

Wooseok sighed in relief. He hadn’t crossed a line. Of course, biting people was its own problem, but at least it wasn’t a hickey. “Why couldn’t I have my phone?”

“I think you were trying to threaten Seungwoo again.”

“He had it coming.”

Seungyoun laughed, and then his face dropped as he realized something quietly to himself. “He’s not going to get mad that you’re here, is he?”

“No,” Wooseok chuckled. “I’m the one who should be mad he left me at the bar. Why?”

“It’s because you guys… you know…” he said, scooting away from him.

“What?! No! No, no, no,” he waved his hands. “No, no, no, no.”

“Oh,” he relaxed, rubbing his neck where Wooseok bit him unconsciously. “Is there  _ anyone  _ who might be mad that you’re here”

“No,” Wooseok shook his head, wondering why he would ask that. “Why?”

“No reason,” he said, jumping up. “Do you prefer Call of Duty or Mario Kart?”

“B-both,” he stuttered, the conversation moving in too many directions for him to keep up with. “Both are fine.”

He hummed and looked at his game shelf in thought, while Wooseok watched him. He looked different then in a t-shirt and basketball shorts that were really too short to wear in front of other people, but it was his house so he could do what he wanted. But like this, Wooseok wasn’t intimidated. In fact, it inspired the demon in him.

“Whatever you pick, you’re going to lose,” Wooseok baited him.

He looked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrow. “You’re talking a lot of shit for someone who couldn’t keep his pants on.”

Wooseok’s cheeks flushed, not having expected him to fire back in such a specifically targeted way, but he wouldn’t be bested. Not by a man in such tiny shorts.

Except a decent retort wouldn’t come.

_ “YoU’rE tAlKiNg a LoT oF sHiT fOr SoMeOnE wHo cOuLdN’t KeEp HiS pAnT’s On,”  _ Wooseok repeated.  _ That’ll show him. _

Seungyoun snorted. “Someone’s annoyed.”

“Someone’s annoying,” Wooseok jabbed, and he wondered if he was taking it too far, but Seungyoun only seemed to be encouraged by it. He never would have imagined he would have the chance to make jabs at him, but it was going surprisingly well. 

“What about Mario Kart,” he said. “I think I need to throw a blue shell at you to make myself feel better.”

“So you agree I’ll be in first place then,” Wooseok smirked.

He paused and thought about it. “Wait, no.”

“Yes! I’m glad we can agree that I’m better than you,” he teased.

“Oh man, you’re dead meat,” Seungyoun said, mischievous. “You wanna make a bet then?”

Wooseok’s mouth twisted, tempted by the idea. “What kind of bet?”

“We play a few rounds, loser buys pizza,” Seungyoun said casually.

Wooseok scoffed dramatically. “Easy. You’re on.”

He plopped down next to him close enough that Wooseok was reminded of the scent of the sheets he woke up buried under and coughed. The smell of fabric softener, cherries, and that boyish smell that some guys had that inspired stirring feelings all came at him at once. Well, he wasn’t going to have any kinds of those feelings for Cho Seungyoun. It hadn’t even been 12 hours since he last openly ignored him enough to make Wooseok want to drink so much that he ended up at his house. He blinked. Yes, those events made sense in that order. 

“You ready,” Seungyoun asked, noticing the scowl on his face.

“Yeah,” Wooseok said.

Somehow the last match ended with Wooseok throwing his last ounce of pride away as he climbed over the much larger person on the couch with him to steal his controller. 

“Ya!” Wooseok shouted, throwing himself over him without a care in the world except to pulverize him.

Seungyoun, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more amused by it. He held his controller out of reach and laughed gleefully as Wooseok clawed at him.

“Don’t be a sore loser,” he said, using his bare knees to hold Wooseok off.

“You cheated!”

“Throwing a shell is  _ not  _ cheating,” he said. “You wanted to be in first place so bad!”

“One more match,” Wooseok whined.

“It’s five to zero,” he said. “We can keep playing, but you’re still going to have to buy me dinner.”

“Not if I win six times,” he insisted.

Seungyoun scrunched his nose and shook his head. “You can’t.”

Wooseok plopped back on the couch and glared at him. “I should wipe that smug expression off your face.”

“Oh really? How are you gonna do that,” he said, taunting him.

Wooseok swallowed, flustered. Was he flirting? Or was he just being annoying? Wooseok couldn’t tell. He wasn’t used to this. What was he supposed to say? 

He huffed, determined not to let him tease him like this. “What kind of pizza do you like?”

“I like anything,” he said. “See if there’s a special or something.”

Wooseok hummed and jumped up, saved by their empty stomachs, but he was missing something important. “Uhh, where’s my phone?”

“Oh, I left it on the counter by the door,” he said.

“Ah, thanks,” Wooseok said before making his way over. He found it safe with his wallet and keys, and he guessed, anything else he might have almost lost when he kicked his pants across the room. He winced at the faint memory barely brought back to him by the most bizarre bowl of soup he had ever had, made by a person he didn’t seem to understand.

When he picked up his phone he found a flurry of missed calls and texts from Seungwoo.

_ Oh my god please tell me you’re ok _

_ I shouldn’t have left you there _

_ Fuck I hope you made it home _

_ I’m the worst friend ever _

_ I’m so sorry please text me _

Wooseok squeezed his eyes shut, his heart racing knowing he had made his friend panic. Yes, Seungwoo should not have left him, but he didn’t need to think something bad had happened to him when the worst part of last night was the embarrassment Wooseok had caused for himself. He called him immediately, tapping his fingernails anxiously against the counter, waiting for him to pick up.

“Wooseok?” the voice on the other end said.

“Hey!” Wooseok said, making sure he sounded extra okay. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back earlier, I didn’t have my phone on me.”

“Sounds fake, you always have it on you,” he said. 

“It’s been a weird morning.”

“Did you get home safe?”

“Ahhh,” he said, looking around awkwardly. “I haven’t gone home yet.”

“Where are you?” He said after a long pause. “Do you need me to come get you?”

“No, I’m fine,” Wooseok said. “I’m at Seungyoun’s house, apparently.”

Seungwoo hummed like it all made sense. It shouldn’t have made sense. It was well known that Wooseok and Seungyoun weren’t friends, and the fact that he was at his house should have been cause for alarm.

“Tell him to come by if he wants to,” Seungyoun said behind him, passing by but not eavesdropping. “Since you’re buying.”

Wooseok looked over his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at him. “He said come by if you want to. Apparently I’m ordering us pizza.”

“Are you sure you don’t want some alone time,” Seungwoo joked.

“Do you want to keep your knees?” Wooseok said.

“If he comes by, tell him to let Yohan and Hangyul know too,” Seungyoun said before wandering off again. “They’ll feel left out if we all spend day together without them.”

“Right,” Wooseok trailed off. They were spending the whole day together. Wooseok was ordering pizza and inviting their friends over to Seungyoun’s house where he had only slept over because Seungyoun wanted to make sure he got home safe.

“Wooseok? You there?” Seungwoo said through the phone.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. “Seungyoun said if you want to come over, bring Yohan and Hangyul.”

“God, what, do you live there now or something?” Seungwoo teased.

“I’m just passing along the message,” Wooseok sang. “Text me so I know much food I have to order.”

“Yes~,” he said before hanging up.

Wooseok exhaled sharply. Now Seungwoo was being annoying too. He couldn’t imagine how insufferable he would have been if he knew what kind of trouble Wooseok had caused the night before, and that made him panic.

“Seungyoun!” He called out, running back through the apartment, slipping from his socks on the slick floor. 

He stuck his head out from the kitchen and looked at him with wide eyes. “Hmm?”

“You’re not going to tell anyone what happened are you,” he asked. “I mean, what I did…”

“I might,” he said. “What’s it to you?”

“I don’t think I can live it down,” Wooseok said.

“Didn’t you just try to fight me over a game of Mario Kart? Calling me a cheater?”

Wooseok frowned. “We were just playing around…”

He hummed and smirked and disappeared back into the kitchen, and he wasn’t sure if that meant he would keep his secret or not.

“Hey!” He called out. “Come back here!”

He hurried into the kitchen and almost crashed into him on the way. Seungyoun grabbed him and steadied him before he could slip and bust his ass.  _ “Clumsy.” _

“Your floors are slippery,” Wooseok dusted himself off, stepping away to put a comfortable space between them. 

He looked down at him for a moment like he was thinking too deeply, but then his face brightened again as his thoughts shifted. “If other people are coming over, I should probably clean up. Take my card and order extra food so it’s not just pizza, but, oh, you have to get the pizza because I won fair and square, and I’m sure you don’t want me to tell anyone about your weird aversion to pants.”

Wooseok stared at him, his mouth agape. “Are you blackmailing me.”

He leaned forward just enough to make him want to step back in. “Yes.”

But before Wooseok could step away or even buck up and challenge him, Seungyoun was gone back to the living room with the order to get himself something to drink so he won’t be dehydrated. He grabbed himself a bottle of water because even though he felt better, he was still slightly hungover and needed his strength if he was going to bear the brunt of his friends’ teasing. He walked back into the living room and set next to Seungyoun, and at that moment, Seungwoo told him the three of them were coming over.

“He said they’re coming,” he said.

He hummed like he wasn’t entirely thrilled about it, but the known social butterfly was probably just tired. Or he had hoped Wooseok would leave. His stomach flipped at the idea that he had overstayed his welcome, and was then bringing more people over to crowd this guy’s personal space.

“Are you sure you don’t want your apartment back,” Wooseok asked. “I can tell him to come get me, and he can tell them I got sick or something.”

“You can stay as long as you want,” he said. “Ah, go ahead and order the food so it’ll be here when they get here.”

“Bossy,” Wooseok said to himself quietly with a shy smile on his lips.  _ So this is what it’s like to talk to him. _

Seungwoo brought Hangyul and Yohan over, and there weren’t nearly as many questions as Wooseok thought there would be. Apparently the younger two had been there for most of Wooseok’s tantrum, and weren’t surprised at all that Seungyoun took care of him because apparently that was just the kind of guy he was. Truthfully, if he had to sit there and listen to people gush over how great Seungyoun was, he would have gotten nauseous before, but then he had to admit to himself that he in a way admired him. Even if Seungyoun didn’t like him, he had been nothing but kind, but then Wooseok wondered if that was because they had been alone. He wondered if he would go back to ignoring him now that their friends were there, and if he did, then Wooseok was sure Seungwoo wouldn’t have a problem taking him home. It would be less awkward that way, anyway.

The five of them sat on the floor in a big circle with all of the food Wooseok and Seungyoun had ordered in the middle. The three new guests had been thoughtful enough to bring more snacks and drinks to get them through what was about to be a long and exhausting gaming session. It was the first time Wooseok felt like he was really a part of the group, and it felt nice.

They ate until everyone was full and sluggish before dividing up into teams. Yohan and Hangyul were on one, and Wooseok and Seungyoun were on the other with Seungwoo in the middle switching out with everyone each round so that no one was left out. Wooseok was feeling better by then so he was more playful and carefree, feeling quite at home where he was.

The two of them with Seungwoo’s help crushed the other team, and Yohan and Hangyul spent their defeat arguing with each other to see once and for all whose fault it was that they had lost. Wooseok laughed until he couldn’t breathe, clinging onto Seungyoun for support until he came back to his senses. Once he caught his breath, he looked up to see him looking back at him fondly, and the heat rose up from his chest, to his neck, and all the way to his ears. He swallowed and looked away before anyone else could see how red his face was.

He had no idea how he was supposed to process that sort of attention from him. That was how everyone else interacted with him, and he had watched it happen a thousand times, but he had never expected…

He took a breath and stood up to get some fresh air or something to drink or anything he could do to process their new friendship? Is that what being his friend was? Being someone he looked at fondly?

He hid in the kitchen for a minute, using the excuse that he needed some more water, and in the few seconds he was alone away from the group with his own thoughts, he realized that maybe being someone like that wouldn’t be something he would have to try very hard to get used to. He smiled to himself, feeling stupid for ever thinking they couldn’t be friends in the first place when he knew all along it had to have been because Wooseok was shy.

He came back in and Hangyul, the rascal, had taken his seat. He frowned and walked in with the intention of sitting on the floor in front of Seungwoo’s feet when he was grabbed and pulled down into Seungyoun’s lap. His eyes widened, and he caught a very surprised expression from Seungwoo who apparently also thought the gesture was strange. He placed his chin on his shoulder and sighed just enough that it tickled Wooseok’s ear.

“So what are we doing now,” Seungyoun asked.

“Yeah, what are we doing,” Seungwoo said directly at him and Wooseok, but it seemed that only Wooseok noticed it. He shifted uncomfortably in his lap, and instead of pushing him off, he dropped his hands around his waist to keep him from falling off. It made Wooseok feel warm and secure and all that more aware of how hard he was being judged by his best friend.

“I’m kind of hungry,” Hangyul said.

“We just ate a few hours ago,” Yohan said in disbelief. “You ate like half a pizza by yourself.”

“Yeah, I’m training,” he scoffed. “I need to bulk up.”

“On pizza?” Seungyoun asked, teasing him.

Hangyul looked over at them and glared. 

“What do you want to eat,” he laughed, making Wooseok bounce like a weightless child.

“Something sweet,” he said. “We missed dessert.”

Seungyoun hummed. “I’ve got ice cream in the freezer.”

“I can get it,” Wooseok said, using the excuse to hop up and release himself from the gaze that had more questions than he had answers.

“I’ll help you,” Seungwoo said, getting up too before Seungyoun could. “You stay here. We can get it since we’ve all taken over your house.”

“That’s true,” he said, closing his eyes and smiling as he rested his head back. “By all means. Wooseok should remember where the bowls are.”

Wooseok thought back to that morning. He barely had an idea, but he was sure he and Seungwoo could figure it out. They walked together to the kitchen where the two of them were alone for the first time since they arrived at the bar the night before.

“You owe me,” he sang quietly just loud enough for Wooseok to hear.

“What are you talking about,” Wooseok whispered.

“Your new boyfriend,” Seungwoo whispered back. “Or whatever it is going on in there.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” he hissed. “You know he doesn’t even talk to me.”

Seungwoo snorted. “Yes, that’s what I call two people who won’t speak to each other.”

“He’s just being nice since I stayed here,” he said.

“And how do you think you got here,” Seungwoo blinked.

“You  _ left me _ ,” he said. “That’s all I need to know.”

Seungwoo hummed. “That’s part of it.”

Wooseok’s heart jumped as panic set in. What else had he forgotten? He opened the fridge and found the container of Seungyoun’s disgusting memory soup.

“What are you doing,” Seungwoo laughed.

“This is the only way,” he said without a drop of humor. He opened the lid and took a spoonful out and forced himself to gag it down. The oil from earlier had thickened, making the soup stick to his tongue, and if he wasn’t desperate to remember, he wouldn’t have gone that far as to drink it without a hangover. He looked at Seungwoo’s face and strained as hard as he could to remember.

He remembered being at the bar, and he remembered the way he felt when Seungyoun looked over him to greet Seungwoo only. The ache in his chest made his eyes sting like he was about to cry, and he didn’t have a reason to do that. He remembered storming off and ordering a couple shots, and a couple more, and a couple more until he had to waddle himself away to find somewhere safe to sit down on that he couldn’t fall off of. 

He remembered pouting and having his whole night ruined by being ignored and hated, and he remembered Seungwoo coming to find him and looking at him the way he did then in the kitchen.

“What’s wrong, Wooseokie” Seungwoo asked, trying to cheer him up.

Wooseok glared at Seungyoun on the other side of the bar — the one person in the world he knew that hated him that much. He sniffled. “I don’t know why he doesn’t like me.”

“Who?” Seungwoo asked, looking back at the rest of the bar.

“That jerk who pretends like I’m not in the room every time we have to meet up,” he grumbled. 

“Are you talking about Seungyoun,” he asked, his eyes wide. “Dude’s had a crush on you for years.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wooseok slurred, wiping his blurry eyes. “He hates me.”

“Oh really,” Seungwoo said, amused. “Do you want me to go ask?”

“Shut up before I climb you like a tree and pull your nose off for sticking it where it doesn’t belong,” Wooseok shouted loud enough for the rest of the bar to hear.

Seungwoo looked taken aback. “You don’t have to yell at me.”

“You’re the one talking nonsense,” he glared.

“If you want to pout and cry over something you’ve imagined in your head then fine. Stay here, then,” Seungwoo said. “I’m going home where people don’t yell at me.”

“Fine,” Wooseok said.

“Fine.”

Wooseok shook himself and covered his face. 

“I’m so sorry,” he said, sober in Seungyoun’s kitchen. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

Seungwoo shook his head. “I shouldn’t have left you there. I came back later thinking I was teaching you a lesson, and everyone said you were making such a fuss that Seungyoun took you home.”

Wooseok cringed and nodded.

“But, I take it you never made it home,” Seungwoo said, half asking for an explanation.

“I wouldn’t give him my address,” Wooseok said, cringing at himself again.

Seungwoo snorted. “Of course you didn’t. Well, that makes me feel better. You were annoying, and nothing bad happened. He’s a nice guy, though. He wouldn’t have let anything bad happen to you.”

“He is a nice guy,” Wooseok agreed quietly.

“Yeah, so quit being a coward,” he whispered.

“Everything okay in here?” Seungyoun appeared which was reasonable since they had taken way too long to scoop out a couple of bowls of ice cream.

“Yeah,” they said at the same time.

He eyed the container of hangover soup on the counter and raised his eyebrow. “Remember anything?”

“Yeah,” Wooseok said, wincing again. 

“You guys are okay right,” he asked, genuinely concerned. “It’s none of my business, but I’ve never seen you two fight before.”

“It happens,” Seungwoo said. “Listen, I have no idea where anything is, so if you want to…”

“Yeah, I got it,” he said, taking Seungwoo’s place next to Wooseok vaguely where the bowls were. “There’s chocolate and strawberry in the freezer.”

“Got it,” Wooseok said, then actually doing what he went in there to do.

“I don’t know what everyone wants so I guess just a couple of scoops of each per bowl?”

“I think that’ll work,” he said. He reached up to open the cabinet door, but Seungyoun’s found it first and held it shut.

“Are you okay,” Seungyoun asked. 

“I’m fine,” Wooseok said, avoiding his eyes. “Why?”

“Because you fought with your best friend drunk in a bar, forgot about it, and just drank the hangover soup right out of the fridge to remember it,” he said, like it was obvious because that should have been all that was on Wooseok’s mind, but it wasn’t.

“I said I was sorry for yelling at him, and he said he didn’t mean to leave me for that long,” he said with a smile. “I’m fine.”

“Alright,” he said. “You two are obviously close so I didn’t know if you would be upset about it.”

_ Close enough that you thought we were dating _ . And Wooseok had a thought that made him question everything he knew about his and Seungyoun’s dynamic. 

“It was all just a misunderstanding,” Wooseok said to himself.

Seungyoun hummed, not realizing he was talking about him. They quietly dished out the desserts and carried them in together to three very hungry boys who would have them know they had waited long enough for their ice cream. 

“This is good,” Yohan said, shoveling a spoonful of strawberry into his mouth.

“See,” Hangyul said. “This is exactly what we needed.”

Wooseok spooned at his awkwardly, having lost his appetite. He was sitting on the floor so he couldn’t spill, and when he looked up he locked eyes with the person whose lap he had sat on only moments before. He wondered if it would have been weird to drop his bowl in the sink and come back and take his spot there again. It was too much, wasn’t it. 

“I don’t know how much longer we can stay,” Seungwoo said, having had enough of watching them stare at each other longingly. “I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning.”

“We taking Wooseok back with us?” Yohan asked, and Wooseok’s heart dropped. He hadn’t considered going home. He  _ needed  _ to go home, but he wasn’t ready. He hadn’t even had a chance to mentally prepare himself for snapping out of the day long dream he was living in.

Seungwoo looked at him, not knowing how to get him out of going back with them either. “We can.”

“I can take him home,” Seungyoun said, and the relief washed over him all at once. He didn’t want him to leave either. “That way you don’t have to worry about being out too late tonight.”

“Are you sure,” Wooseok asked feeling like the suggestion was too good to be true.

“You don’t mind, do you,” Seungwoo asked, earning his place as the world’s best wingman.

“Not at all,” he said. 

“We don’t mind staying either if you need to get home,” Hangyul asked, very much enjoying his ice cream and very much not reading the room. Wooseok exhaled sharply through his nose, and Seungyoun looked at him like he was going to burst a vein.

“No, you’re coming with me,” Seungwoo said, wild eyed. 

“Seungyoun doesn’t mind if we stay here,” Yohan pointed out. Seungyoun closed his eyes and took a breath, and the three who knew what was going on were out of ideas.

Wooseok looked to Seungwoo for help, but they were in a bind. Seungyoun was too  _ nice  _ to send them away. Seungwoo had tried his best, but there wasn’t much more he could do. Wooseok was the only one who hadn’t tried anything yet, and he couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t throwing his shoes at them.

But there was one way he knew how to get out of anything.

Wooseok covered his hand with his mouth and heaved with his eyes wide open before running off to the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and cursed himself immediately. What had he done? Why did he do that? It wasn’t even confirmed that Seungyoun liked him, and there he was faking food poisoning to get some alone time with him.  _ Oh my god, I’m so stupid. _

“Wooseok,” Seungyoun called through the door, having run after him. “Are you okay.”

He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down before opening the door just enough to talk to him. Everything was going to be fine. 

“Just roll with it,” he whispered, and he saw the relief spread across Seungyoun’s face as he realized what Wooseok was doing. He nodded and went back.

“Uhhh, Wooseok is sick,” he said. Wooseok smiled to himself, listening at the door.

“Is it food poisoning,” Seungwoo asked, already knowing the routine well.

“I think so,” he said. 

“Are we going to get sick,” Hangyul asked.

“I don’t think it’s contagious,” Seungwoo said.

“But didn’t we eat the same thing he did,” Yohan asked.

Wooseok, hiding behind the door, rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and made the loudest retching sound he could muster that would make any man’s stomach churn.

“Maybe we should go,” Hangyul said.

“Yeah, you’ve got this right,” Seungwoo asked Seungyoun. 

“I’ll take care of him for you.”

Wooseok’s heart jumped. This was a thing, wasn’t it? He wasn’t imagining it. Seungwoo hadn’t imagined it either. What if he actually liked him? What if that was a possibility, and what if Wooseok wanted him to?

It was quiet for a while, and he was listening too closely at the door to make any more convincing puking noises until a knock came.

“You still in there,” he asked.

Wooseok opened the door and poked his head through. “Is it safe.”

He looked down at him with the same amount of fondness as earlier that made Wooseok’s heart swell. “It’s safe.”

He stepped out of the bathroom and brushed himself off.

“That’s quite an act you two’ve got there,” he said, impressed.

“Thank you,” Wooseok said. “Sometimes you need a backup plan.”

He hummed, amused. “I’d say it worked pretty well.”

“You’re fine with this, though, right?” he asked, feeling insecure about the whole thing. After all, Seungyoun  _ was  _ too nice to tell someone they couldn’t stay.

“Of course,” he said with a smile.

“I don’t know why I did tha–.”

“I wanted you to stay,” Seungyoun said. “So stay. If you want to go, I’ll take you home right now so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“I want to stay,” he said, his voice cracking.

“Good,” he said brightly. 

Wooseok followed him into the room, stopping before taking his place on the couch. There was a lot of his mind, and he wasn’t sure how much deducing he could manage on his own without voicing at least one of his thoughts.

“You invited Seungwoo here for me didn’t you,” Wooseok said.

He hummed. “Partly.”

Wooseok furrowed his brow and nodded, trying to understand. 

He sighed loudly and tried his best to gather his thoughts. “You fought, you came here with me, you stayed here with me, and he was worried about you. I didn’t want to cause a rift between you two because having a friend like that doesn’t happen very often.”

“Thank you,” Wooseok smiled, comforted by that. Everything everyone had ever said about him being a nice guy was true, and Wooseok had just missed out on the party.

“I also wanted to see for myself if you two weren’t really dating or at least not into each other,” he admitted.

Wooseok laughed. “I guess you figured out we’re not then.”

“Nope,” he laughed too but with a twinge of embarrassment. “Not after the way he helped drag out the twins with his bare hands.”

Wooseok covered his face at the clownery. “He did, didn’t he.”

“A hell of a guy,” he said, amused.

“I need to ask you something,” Wooseok said, suddenly serious. “It’s been bothering me for years, but now I’m even more confused.”

“What is it?”

“Why don’t you like me,” he said.

Seungyoun blinked. “What?”

“We’ve known each other since we were in high school, and you’ve never once spoken to me unless you were forced to,” Wooseok said. “Not that I need everyone to like me, but you… you like everybody. Except me.”

“You’re here because I don’t like you?” He joked, and Wooseok scowled. “Alright, yes, it’s possible that I’ve been avoiding you… a little.”

Wooseok’s heart dropped. “Why? What did I do?”

“Nothing! Oh god,” he covered his face. “Are you thirsty? Do you need a blanket or anything?”

“Seungyoun,” he pleaded, the thought of having committed some slight against him that he didn’t know about years ago making him too anxious to mess around.

“Right,” he said. “Well, I guess now is as good of a time as any. I thought you and Seungwoo had a thing, and I thought if I let myself get close to you, I wouldn’t be a nice guy anymore.”

“What do you mean,” Wooseok asked, shaking.

He looked at him seriously without the mischievous charisma he had with everyone else. “If I had the chance, I would have stolen you away.”

Wooseok froze, forgetting how to breathe. He waited for a smile or a laugh or for the others to jump out and yell surprise or anything to tell him that he wasn’t being serious, but nothing like that happened. Instead, he looked at him like saying that was the most painful thing he had ever said, and he had only let himself because Wooseok asked him directly. Because he was a nice guy.

“What about now,” he asked, knowing the circumstances had changed dramatically in less than 24 hours. Not only did he know then that Wooseok wasn’t a person he would ever have to compromise himself for, but he had also seen Wooseok at his  _ worst  _ unprompted. Drunk baby Wooseok may have been harmless, but he was still a nightmare. 

He took a step forward, erasing the gap between them to an almost startling degree, and Wooseok was almost ready to change his mind and leave, not ready for the answer, whatever it was. “What do you want me to do?”

He exhaled, his shoulders falling in defeat. “I don’t want you to worry about how the things you want affect other people when it comes to me.”

He knew it was an unfair jab, but he also knew that he was right. He would never feel comfortable with any progress they made that night if he felt that even for a moment Seungyoun was doing anything for his sake. If there was even a moment of doubt, everything would collapse because Wooseok wouldn’t dare push him into a situation that he thought he didn’t really want. Seungyoun spent too much time considering other people, and he wanted to make sure that someone considered him too.

“Alright,” he said quietly, putting a hand on Wooseok’s cheek, that was, although small, the perfect size to cup his face. He watched him for a moment, stroking the apple of his cheek with his thumb like he was thinking of how to take the next step. 

The wait was agonizing. He stood perfectly still as a million thoughts raced across Seungyoun’s face. He weighed the decision carefully while never breaking his gaze, and Wooseok worried he would collapse by the intensity of the stare before he came to a conclusion one way or another. 

“Do you want to watch a movie,” Seungyoun asked.

“What?” Wooseok said, startled. That wasn’t the conclusion he expected  _ at all. _

“Would you like to watch a movie with me,” he smiled.

“Right now?” 

“Mhm,” the gaze had softened, and Wooseok took it as  _ technically  _ a good sign.

“Sure,” Wooseok said.

Seungyoun stepped away to get the movie ready, and Wooseok released a breath, worried he was close to having a heart attack.  _ A movie?! Do you like me or not?! What the hell am I supposed to do with this? This doesn’t tell me anything! _

“If you want, you can borrow some of my shorts or sweatpants, if that’ll be more comfortable,” he offered over his shoulder.

Wooseok looked at Seungyoun’s legs and back at his own, noticing the drastic difference in size. “Do you have any drawstring shorts?”

“Bedroom dresser, left side, middle drawer,” he said.

“Got it,” Wooseok said, running off to Seungyoun’s bedroom. Honestly speaking, he didn’t mind lounging around in his own clothes, but he needed the chance to catch his breath after the roller coaster of emotions and wave of unanswered questions he just experienced. 

He looked at the ruffled bed sheets where he had slept and couldn’t help but smile. He had been a horrible embarrassment to himself and probably all other people born with the name Wooseok, sure, but someone that warm and interesting had taken the time to take care of him because he didn’t want Wooseok to go home drunk with someone who might hurt him. A position he only stepped up to because he thought Wooseok had been abandoned by the person he assumed was supposed to take care of him. The same person who he valued enough to keep himself away from Wooseok for, and Wooseok was a person he liked enough to worry about ruining a friendship over. He liked him right?

He switched to the shorts, leaving his pants folded neatly on the dresser rather than kicking them onto another table lamp, with a new resolve. He could wait, they both could, but why should they have to? He hurried out into the living room where the lights were off, and it felt like a different place. The big speech he had barely thrown together in his head disappeared altogether, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. So he sat down on the couch and decided he would get to that later.

Before he joined him, Seungyoun froze.

“What’s wrong?” Wooseok asked.

“You like me right?”

“Yeah,” he coughed.

“I’m not making this up in my head, am I?”

“You’re not,” Wooseok laughed, finding the way he mildly panicked endearing. 

“Good,” he said, brushing himself off. “Because I want to take you out, but it’s a weird weekend, and I don’t know if you want to go somewhere like this, and well, I have movies here, and it almost feels more weird to leave–.”

“Seungyoun,” Wooseok said brightly. “Sit down.”

“Okay,” he said, sitting next to him.

“We don’t have to go anywhere,” he said. 

“Okay,” he said again, calmer.

“Is this the kind of person who could steal someone away from another person,” Wooseok teased, completely enamored by what a nervous mess he had turned into in the last five minutes.

He smirked, looking away from him, and Wooseok knew he had challenged him. He knew  _ exactly  _ what he had done.

But the wait was killing him.

“You sure talk a lot of shit for someone who couldn’t keep his pants on,” Seungyoun said.

Wooseok gasped. “I thought we were over that.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be over that,” he said, and he could have sworn he saw a flash of pink appear on his cheeks. Wooseok smiled to himself and cozied up into the couch, feeling quite at home at a place he had only ended up at by chance. “Are you good with anything?”

“Hmm?”

“Like, movie wise,” he said. “I want to take you to see Frozen 2 before Hangyul drags one of us with him first, so I think we should watch Frozen Frozen first.”

“We’re watching Frozen?” Wooseok asked, quite amused.

“Only if that’s okay with you,” he said shyly.

“That’s fine with me,” he laughed.  _ Fuck, he is the kind of person who could steal me away. Look at him. He’s a giant baby. I would have left anyone for him if there was someone to leave. _

The giant, shy, happy baby who had completely unnerved him only moments before finished setting up the movie and covered them in a blanket for extra comfort and warmth. He was so cute all of a sudden that Wooseok thought he was going to die. He was actually having chest pains over how cute Seungyoun had become in only a matter of minutes. 

Wooseok couldn’t stop himself. He lunged forward and planted a quick kiss on his cheek that was softer than he would have realized.  _ Oh my god, even his face is soft and squishy. Oh my god. Oh my god. _

Seungyoun froze and looked at him in shock, and Wooseok realized that  _ might  _ have been a bad idea. He  _ might  _ have misinterpreted the whole situation. And he  _ might _ have had to move. But before he could run and hide and change his name, Seungyoun leaned in gave him a single chaste kiss. 

It was sweet and careful, and Wooseok felt himself smile into it. He reached his hands up to Seungyoun’s soft squishy cheeks and held him to return the kiss that had warmed him into a useless pile of pudding.

“What was that for,” Seungyoun whispered.

“You were cute, and I couldn’t help myself,” he whispered back.

“Oh,” he said, giving him another quick kiss. “That’s fine then.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be watching a movie,” he kissed him back.

“We are,” he said, returning it again eagerly.

Wooseok hummed against his mouth as he reminded himself to breathe. “I guess this counts.” 

“It does,” he said, sliding his hand through his hair and pulling him closer.

Wooseok’s body moved towards him as if completely magnetized. “Ya, Cho Seungyoun.”

“Hm?” he said, not entirely focused on anything but Wooseok’s lips.

“You like me right?”

He nodded.

“Good,” Wooseok said before taking his bottom lip into his mouth playfully. “Just checking.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungyoun has a reason to doubt that Wooseok likes him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the positive response on this when it was a one shot!!!! 
> 
> I decided to make it a three part story because I felt bad about the ending, and it wouldn’t hurt for them to spend the weekend together. 👀

The night ended with the two of them barely watching the movie because they were both too busy stealing the smallest of kisses. He would have been lying if he said he didn’t want more after having the guy he had been crushing on for  _ years  _ on his couch, alone, and apparently interested enough to help chase their friends off, but he remembered how stressed Wooseok had been early that morning when he thought he had made a mistake. He didn’t want to make his own mistake that would have completely thrown everything away. After all, he had been actively ignoring Wooseok since they were practically kids to try to get over him, and it hadn’t worked. How would he have handled having him so close and snatched away from him again after knowing something so simple as what his mouth tasted like? Even though there was nothing simple about that. It was the sweetest thing he had ever had the chance to know.

But then the night was over, and even though he had been very effective at keeping Wooseok inside his house for the entire day (a plan almost completely ruined by two idiots who he would later have to punish somehow), Wooseok eventually had to go home, and it was physically killing him to have to be the one to do it.

He said he could take a taxi, but Seungyoun wouldn’t have it, if only because he wanted to make those last few minutes with him last a bit longer.

He was so much fun and so interesting. He was small and quiet but at the same time as strong as a bear and so deafeningly noisy. And he was so pretty. He couldn’t believe it. Like, Wooseok had always been the most attractive person he had ever met, but up close with ruffled hair, flushed cheeks, and glossy eyes, he was the most beautiful. And he couldn’t put his finger on it, but the way he smelled made Seungyoun want to bury his face in his neck and breathe him in in place of the air he needed to live. He was perfect, and he was right at his fingertips to take like he had always wanted. 

The problem before had been his friendship with Seungwoo. Seungwoo was someone who he looked up to and respected. He was the type of person to sacrifice himself for anyone and give everything he had to protect the people he cared about, so of course he had someone like Wooseok at his side even if it wasn’t in the way that he had previously misinterpreted.

Seeing them fight at the bar hadn’t sparked an opportunity for him like it may have seen on the outside. On the contrary, the fear of watching someone like Seungwoo lose the person he cared about most over a drunken dispute made him go to Wooseok in the first place to stop the worst from happening, and with Seungwoo seemingly out of the way, he saw the way the other guys at the bar looked at him. He was a dumb, drunk, blubbering mess who clung to anyone he could grab onto, and the thought of anyone taking advantage of that made him sick to his stomach. For Wooseok’s sake, for Seungwoo’s sake, and for his sake too. He had to intervene.

_ I’ll get him home, and everything will be okay. No one will get hurt. No one will lose anyone. Then I’ll go back to keeping myself away from him so I can’t hurt anyone either. This isn’t about me tonight. _

But Wooseok was belligerent. He  _ vehemently  _ refused to tell the driver where he lived, and Seungyoun himself even shamelessly tried to coax it out of him, but his lips were sealed. 

It didn’t help that Seungyoun was drunk too, and when he was drunk, he was giggly and stupid and Wooseok had his face buried in his neck making everything worse. It would have been so easy for him to ruin everything he had spent so much time and heartache protecting, but he kept it together and that reward had been paid in full only the next day. It was a simple truth, though, if he had let himself slip, he wouldn’t have won him in the end because Wooseok would have seen him as a regret and ran, but he wouldn’t have blamed him. It worked out like it was supposed to, but then Wooseok had to go home, and it was over. 

He said goodnight at his door and thought for a moment that he was going to slip inside like nothing had happened, but Wooseok grabbed him by his shirt, still wearing his sweatshirt himself, and pulled him to him pressing their lips together one last time eagerly, the smaller having a craving that wasn’t yet satisfied.

It killed him to pull away, to not let himself be pulled inside by him for the night, and Wooseok had pouted when he stopped himself, his two large eyes staring up at him like a kitten. It wasn’t time yet. 

Because he still wasn’t sure if Wooseok liked him the way that he liked  _ him _ .

Walking into his apartment alone was one of the top things on his list of things he did not want to do that night. There was no noisy, drunk Wooseok kicking his pants around. There was no clingy Wooseok who didn’t want to be left in the bed alone. There was no hungover Wooseok grumbling in his kitchen. There was no  _ slightly less  _ hungover Wooseok who very clearly did not want to go home, giving Seungyoun the slightest amount of hope that he wanted to be there  _ with him.  _ There was no sore loser at Mario Kart Wooseok who he had almost kissed before he had permission while he fought to snatch his controller away. No good friend Wooseok who helped invite their friends over while he wondered what he would be like as his boyfriend who made those calls comfortably all the time. No Wooseok who fit into his lap perfectly when there was nowhere else for him to sit. No Wooseok who helped him empty out his apartment so he could steal the alone time he craved. No Wooseok to kiss. No Wooseok to fall in love with.

He closed his eyes and kicked himself. He was being lonely and emo all by himself, and for what? If he missed him so much, he could call him. Wooseok clearly had a phone. Seungyoun was the one who had to hide it from him to keep him from calling Seungwoo a big snoopy faced idiot. Of course, he could just text him or call him or convince him to send him a picture of himself to make his phone background. As he had that thought, Hangyul’s voice appeared in his head calling him whipped, and he immediately informed the voice in his head that that simply wasn’t true.

He pulled out his phone, ready to end his own suffering when he froze.

_ Fuck. _

He forgot to get Wooseok’s number.

That was no problem. He could simply get back into his car, drive across town, and ask him for it in person.  _ No, I can’t that’s crazy. I’m not  _ completely  _ out of my mind yet. _

He refused to look like a desperate idiot no matter how much he liked him. Any reasonable person with good sense would be immediately turned off be someone showing up at their house just to get their phone number. He could respect boundaries. He was normal.

So he had to think. How could he get Wooseok’s number while respecting his boundaries and not doing anything weird… 

Of course! They had friends in common, and he knew at least three of them. Well, one of them if he only included all the numbers he had saved in his phone. It was a terrible habit of his, not saving numbers, and it had finally come back to bite him in the ass. But it was no matter. He would just have to try his luck with the one person’s number he did have.

He pulled out his phone and immediately called Hangyul.

“Hello?”

“Hangyul! Buddy! Best friend in the whole world!”

“What do you want,” he said, completely immune to Seungyoun’s meandering.

“I need a favor,” he said.

“Why, is Wooseok okay?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of why I’m calling,” Seungyoun said. “You wouldn’t happen to have his number, would you?”

“I was wondering. Isn’t it kind of weird that Seungwoo took us home and not Wooseok even though Wooseok was sick?”

“Listen, that’s not important,” he insisted in a hurry. “What I need is his number.”

“Why’s that?”

“To enter him into my company’s monthly raffle. This month is a waffle maker. To call him, you idiot,” he said, running out of patience.

“Whoa, I didn’t know you two were so close,” he laughed. “Don’t you hate each other?”

“Not exactly,” he sighed. “Can you give it to me or not?”

“I cannot,” Hangyul said, and Seungyoun was about to reach through the phone to ring his neck before he continued. “But I’m sure Yohan has it.”

“Great!” Seungyoun shouted. “Can you give me his number?”

“You don’t have Yohan’s number,” he asked, mind blown. 

“If I saved anyone’s number, I would have too many problems and a boyfriend right now,” Seungyoun said, kicking himself again for forgetting to ask.

“A boyfriend? Who?”

“Please, just give me Yohan’s number,” he pleaded.

“Are you going to ask out Yohan?”

“No!” He cried out. “Please! Don’t you like him?”

“I was just checking,” Hangyul said, bruised. “Who is it then.”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because I have something you want, and you suddenly have something I can make fun,” he said, mischievous.

“I will tell you as soon as I have said boyfriend and not a moment before,” he said through his teeth.

“I see we are at an impasse,” Hangyul said coolly, knowing he had him backed into a corner.

He sighed, not knowing if it was better to drop it and figure out a plan b, or tell Hangyul everything and risk being made fun of for finally admitted his own feelings for a guy everyone apparently thought he hated. Except somehow Seungwoo, but that was probably for the best.

“Tick tock,” he teased.

“Fine!” Seungyoun shouted. “You’ll give me Yohan’s number if I tell you, right?”

“Mmm.”

“And you won’t say anything to anybody  _ especially  _ if it doesn’t happen?”

“Mhm…”

“Alright,” he said, taking a breath. “It’s Wooseok.”

Hangyul gasped.  _ “What?!” _

“Now help me before I lose my fucking mind,” he pleaded.

“Oh man, this is too good,” Hangyul laughed. “Did he get sick before or after you said you liked him?”

“After! No, before! Wait! No! Wooseok wasn’t really sick,” he tried to explain. “We just wanted some alone time!”

“Ooh~,” he sang. “Some alone time~.”

“Dude, I’m going to kick your ass,” Seungyoun threatened.

“I don’t think I should help you,” he laughed.

“Why not?!”

“Because if he liked you, he would have given you his number before he left,” he considered.

“You don’t know, you weren’t there,” he said. “We didn’t get to that yet.”

“You spent all day together.”

“Please help me,” Seungyoun said desperately, too tired to keep this up. “I promise I’ll owe you.”

He heard Hangyul sigh on the other side. “Fine, but only because I’d rather make fun of you after you get rejected.”

“Thank you,” he said, relieved. “I think.”

Hangyul relinquished Yohan’s number, and Seungyoun was one step closer to finally calling Wooseok. All he had to do was get through Yohan who would probably be considerably more helpful than Hangyul was. Before calling, he made sure to put his number in first to avoid having to go through such a painful scenario again. Hangyul really had no business being that difficult when he spent half his time following Yohan around like a puppy. It was absurd.

He huffed to himself, his mood completely changed by a phone call, but hopefully he only had two left to make. And then he could plot his revenge after he talked to Wooseok until the other fell asleep.

He called Yohan who was immediately more forthcoming with the information than his previous best buffoon, if not a little exhausted.

“Did I wake you?”

“Nah, man, I was just having a little nap-nap,” he said cheerfully. “What do you need Wooseok for?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Seungyoun said with a continued sense of urgency. He worried he had already jinxed himself by letting Hangyul have a smithereen of an idea of what he was up to. Telling someone else would surely be enough to completely curse him and ruin his chances at getting to call the beautiful and perfect drunk baby Kim Wooseok his boyfriend.

“You like him or somethin’,” he asked, sounding bored.

“Shut up!” Seungyoun shouted, fearing the inevitable curse that he was now doomed to suffer. “Dude!”

Yohan cackled. “You do! Aww! Good luck, buddy!”

“Oh my god, I’ve gotta go,” he said, hanging up on him before he could make it worse, but it didn’t matter. He had Wooseok’s number, and all he had to do was text him or call him.  _ “Am I supposed to text him or call him?” _

He had to think. Wooseok was pretty quiet. No, he wasn’t quiet at all. He was bass boosted. He shivered at the memory and continued his internal debate. Wooseok was quiet around people he wasn’t close to so texting seemed like the best option, but he called Seungwoo (who he was quite close to) to tell him that he was at Seungyoun’s home and safe. So that left one question.  _ Are we close or not? _

It was his own fault he didn’t know, but it was a  _ really  _ bad time to not know. Like if it was anyone else, it wouldn’t matter. They could just get over it. He didn’t care. But this… this was different. He closed his eyes and nodded, resolved.  _ I’ma do both. _

It made the most sense to call him first since once he picked up, he wouldn’t need to text him. He smiled at himself for being so clever. Everything was going according to plan.

Except for one problem. Wooseok didn’t pick up his phone. That was something he hadn’t necessarily anticipated. Sure, it was a possibility, but half of his nerves had been placed into making that phone call. Now what was he supposed to?

_ Just text him, stupid. _

Of course. He could do that. Texting was easy. He should have gone with that first. He sent him a quick message saying who he was, and that he got his number from Yohan, and that he hoped that was alright.

_ Now I just have to wait. _

He sat down on the couch and held his phone in his lap without even bothering to turn the tv on, too busy concentrating on the blackened screen of an undisturbed cell phone to bother relaxing in his own home. 

As he waited, the ticking clock in his head grew louder, and his nerves began to stir. Was it entirely possible that Wooseok had gone to bed? Of course. Was that enough to stop him from pacing around his apartment and wiping down the same counter multiple times until the paint rubbed off? Absolutely not. 

He couldn’t stand it anymore. The wait was unbearable, and it was going to make him lose his mind. He grabbed his phone and called someone who, although annoying, could help calm his nerves.

“Hello?”

“Hangyul, we need to go out,” he said, sweating.

“Now?!” 

“It’s a Saturday,” Seungyoun said.

“Oh, right,” Hangyul said. “Alright, I’ll get dressed then.”

“Cool, see you in twenty minutes.”

“Wait, did things not go well with Wooseok then,” he laughed. “Did he really turn you down?”

“I don’t know, he won’t answer his phone,” he said.

“Doesn’t Wooseok literally always have his phone on him?”

Seungyoun’s mouth thinned. “I wouldn’t know.”

Hangyul sucked his teeth. “I think he blew you off, dude.”

“Just get Yohan and meet me there,” he said, trying to hide the panic in his voice. “I gotta go.”

He hung up the phone and dropped it on the cushion, no longer wanting to hold such a cursed object in his hands.

_ He doesn’t like me. _

“It’s gonna be ok,” Yohan said, patting his back.

Seungyoun sat with his head on the bar, feeling on the inside probably what the underside of the bartop felt like if he were to dare slip his hand under and find out.

“You don’t understand,” he grumbled. “I was so close.”

“Look, it happens,” Hangyul said. “You probably had a moment in your head and got carried away. It happens to the best of us.”

“Not to me!” He wailed. “And I didn’t make it up! We! We had a thing.”

Yohan and Hangyul scooped down to his level. 

_ “Did you?” _ They said at the same time.

_ “No,” _ he said annoyed. “Just some other stuff. Not that stuff. Just. You know what, it doesn’t matter.”

The two of them couldn’t even tell each other that they liked each other, but they would have still dared to make fun of him for not being able to hold Wooseok’s hand even though they kissed a little. A lot a little. His face flushed. He was a coward, and he knew it. Wooseok knew it. He didn’t need Hangyul and Yohan to know it too.

“It’s not a big deal,” Yohan insisted. “You’ll get over it soon. You always do.”

Seungyoun squeezed his eyes shut, an ache in his chest. It was different this time. It was easy to get over other people for him because they weren’t Wooseok. Instead of saying that out loud and risking what was left of his pride, he announced something else much more rewarding.

“I need a drink.”

  
  


Seungyoun had no idea where the hell we was. It wasn’t his room, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t in Hangyul’s or Yohan’s rooms either, but he was in a bed so if it wasn’t one of the two friends he went to the bar with, he must have gone home with someone to make himself feel better. That wasn’t  _ ideal.  _

Whoever the room belonged to smelled like expensive hand cream and fabric softener and was probably not the kind of person who brought people home on a whim. He would have to apologize for any misunderstanding he may have caused and bail before having to face the consequences of his stupid drunk actions. Whoever it was would surely hate him for it, but it wasn’t his fault. They could never measure up to Wooseok, so there really wasn’t a point in making it worse for either of them.

He rustled around in the sheets he had been tucked into with an almost military like precision, and he discovered he was still completely dressed even down to his jeans that had started to cut off the blood flow to his legs.  _ Wait a minute. This isn’t right.  _

He most definitely didn’t hook up with anyone if he still had his pants on.

So where was he and how the hell did he get there?

The door cracked open, and he was about to find out. For some reason, his instinct was to lay back down and pretend he was asleep like a child caught by their parents staying up all night to read a comic book under their bedsheets.

_ “Seungyoun?”  _ a small voice whispered. He opened one of his eyes. So whoever it was at least knew him well enough to call him by his name.  _ “Seungyoun, are you awake yet?” _

_ Wait… that voice… _

“What are you doing here?” He sat up as if by an electric charge.

“It’s my house,” Wooseok laughed and slipped into the room, closing the door behind him to leave them and his poor throbbing head alone in the darkness.

He collapsed down on Wooseok’s alleged bed sheets in a mixture of relief, disbelief, and embarrassment. There was no logical way he could have gotten from point A (the bar) to point B (Wooseok’s apartment) after the events that transpired the night before, but yet there he was. He just had to pray that Wooseok wasn’t mad at him.

Instead of turning on all the lights, his stereo, and lighting a dozen scented candles to punish his hungover foolish self for causing him a world of unnecessary trouble, Wooseok crawled into bed with him. He sat up against the wall and pulled Seungyoun’s flopped over torso onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around Wooseok’s waist and rested his head on his thigh that was a bit more muscular than he had expected, but still soft enough that he never wanted to move again.

There was no way this was real. There was no way in the living world that he could have been allowed to do that without Wooseok tensing up and wiggling himself free. If this was heaven, what good had he done in his life to deserve this? But it couldn’t be heaven because every single bone in his body ached and his stomach felt like he had swallowed a boulder.

“Am I alive,” he groaned.

“Do you feel alive?” Wooseok asked, amused.

“No.” He closed his eyes and buried his face into Wooseok’s thigh, ready to go back to sleep until his soul returned to his body. He still couldn’t believe he was there. He couldn’t believe he was there  _ with him.  _ “What happened last night?”

Wooseok snorted. “I take it you don’t remember.”

He grumbled a simple no.

“Do you want me to tell you? I don’t have any of your weird hangover soup to help you out.”

“Give it to me straight,” he said weakly. “Expose my tragic backstory.”

“I’ll try my best,” he laughed. “So Hangyul called me from Yohan’s phone.”

“He did?” Seungyoun asked, feeling touched.

“To curse me,” he continued.

“He did,” he said, less touched.

“Apparently I broke his friend’s heart,” Wooseok sighed.

Seungyoun winced. “I never said that.”

He hummed. “Apparently, I stole his heart, chewed it up, and spit it out without even saying goodbye.”

“Oh god,” he groaned. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not finished,” he chided him. “He told me that he would never forgive me if I didn’t come apologize for hurting his best friend who had gone through an entire bottle of tequila by himself to cleanse himself from me.”

“Oh no…”

“So of course I rushed over because I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, and I was scared that you were going to hurt yourself if you kept going like that all night,” he said in a less amused tone. A part of Seungyoun deeply regretted that he had done something to make him worry like that, but the other part was over the moon that Wooseok cared enough about him to worry. “And then when I got there…”

“What,” he said, looking up. “Why did you stop?”

“Ahhh, are you sure you want me to keep going?”

“Yes,” he said, knowing he was about to regret what he was about to hear.

“So, I got there,” Wooseok continued. “And it wasn’t too hard to find you because you were dancing in the middle of the room with some guy I’ve never seen before, but when you saw me you started crying.”

“Oh god,” he said.

“You pushed the poor dude away, and he almost fell down. I kind of felt bad for him, but he should have been dancing with someone else, but anyway, as I was saying, you saw me and started crying, and I was like  _ what’s wrong, what’s going on _ and then you proceeded to tell me that it’s okay if I don’t like you back, and that you’ll learn to live with that.”

“Oh no,” he said, loosening his grip around Wooseok’s waist.

Before he continued, Wooseok repositioned his arms for him so that Seungyoun held him tightly again. “So, I, of course, had no idea what the hell you were talking about. Then you said that I always have my phone on me, which is technically true, but I didn’t bother texting or calling you back so I must hate you.”

“Then why didn’t you,” he mumbled.

“I’m getting to that,” Wooseok said. “I had to explain to you, who was very drunk I might add, that I had no idea that you had even bothered to call me at all. You said that was impossible, and you even held up your hand that had my smudged phone number written on it in permanent marker to prove it. Except that wasn’t my phone number.”

“What,” he said, his eyes wide.

“Yeah, the last number on your hand was a 3 and mine is a 4 so Yohan gave you the wrong number,” he said. “Once I figured that out, I was able — with the help of Yohan, who was deeply apologetic once he finally believed me that it was  _ his  _ fuck up, and Hangyul, who still thinks I broke your heart, by the way — to get you into the cab with me so I could get you home.”

“So you brought me to your house,” he asked.

“I was going to take you to yours and sleep on the couch until this morning so we could talk, but you were so upset that you told me to leave you on the side of the road, and I couldn’t remember where you lived so, uh, it was either my house or Seungwoo’s, and honestly, I don’t know if you could handle the lecture Seungwoo would have had ready for you when you woke up.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I’m an idiot.”

“Yes, you are,” Wooseok sighed.

He looked up at him and pouted. 

“But I guess you're my idiot,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes, soothed by the sensation that managed to be the only thing that eased his throbbing head. If he didn’t know any better, he was sure that Wooseok had called him  _ his _ , but he was sure that was impossible. “I fixed my number in your phone so that it couldn’t happen again.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” he said. “Honestly, even though it sounds awful, you were adorable. Even when you were crying.”

“Oh my god, shut up,” he groaned and squeezed him harder.

Wooseok broke out into a fit of giggles before copying him in a crying tone.  _ “My boyfriend doesn’t like me~.” _

He sat up. “I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did,” he said, doing his best to hold back a smile. “That’s okay, because my boyfriend is stupid.”

“We don’t have to…” he said, unbelievably embarrassed. They hadn’t had the boyfriend talk yet, and he didn’t want Wooseok to feel forced into a relationship even is Drunk Seungyoun had taken those steps for the both of them.

“Oh, yes we do,” he laughed. “It’s already done.”

He collapsed back into his lap, not sure if he was supposed to be elated or humiliated. 

“You know, until yesterday I thought you were intimidating,” Wooseok said. Seungyoun hummed. “You really are just a dumb, giant, baby.”

“Look who’s talking,” he grumbled. 

“I know what I did!” Wooseok defended himself. “But you ignored me for almost ten years, and all I did was not text you back even though it wasn’t actually my number.”

He sighed deeply, loathing himself. “I thought I lost you after finally getting my chance, and I didn’t handle it well.”

“That’s okay,” he said, stroking his hair. “Nothing happened. How’s your head?”

“It’s killing me,” he admitted. 

Wooseok hummed. “Let me get you something for that.”

“Wait, don’t go yet,” he said, holding him in place.

“I’ll be right back,” Wooseok laughed.

“Promise?”

“It’s my house,” he whined. “Where else would I go?”

“Oh right,” he said, removing himself from Wooseok’s lap. “Carry on.”

Wooseok crawled back out of bed and left, taking all of the warmth he had with him. He grabbed a pillow and clutched it to his chest and smelled the fabric, hoping to breathe in just enough of his scent that he wouldn’t miss him too much. It didn’t work.

He knew he was being ridiculous, but Wooseok was right. It had been almost ten years of ignoring him which added up to almost ten years of  _ wanting  _ him, and he was right there. And he called him his boyfriend. Well, he was mostly teasing him, but he still said the words with his own mouth unprompted, and he didn’t take them back when he was given the chance. He was going to make it worth it. He was going to make it count.

He got up and wandered out of the room. It was an unfamiliar space that he would one day have to get properly acquainted with. He liked the idea of that — becoming a part of Wooseok’s space and Wooseok becoming a part of his. It had almost been too much for his hopeful heart, watching him slowly become comfortable in Seungyoun’s home on his own naturally like he was supposed to be there. And then he had a thought. What if they ended up living together one day? That would be a long way away in the future and entirely dependent on their feelings, schedules, and routines, but what if…

He found Wooseok in his kitchen pouring a bunch of mysterious ingredients into a large glass, and none of them looked particularly appetizing.

“What’s this?” Seungyoun asked.

Wooseok turned around and passed it to him. “Hair of the dog that bit you.”

He took the glass from him and examined it, covering his nose once the smell hit him. “Is this payback for the soup?”

“Partially,” Wooseok said. “Drink up so we can start our day.”

_ We. Our. Our day. _

“Alright,” he said, unsure but eager to find out what Wooseok had in mind. He put the glass to his lips and tasted it and immediately started gagging. “Ugh! What’s in this?!”

Wooseok hummed. “Vodka, tomato juice, tabasco sauce, a handful of dried anchovies, fish sauce, worcestershire sauce, two raw eggs, three olives, a pear, and half a squeeze of lemon juice.”

Seungyoun cried out in horror. “What the hell, Seok!”

“Drink up,” he clapped just loud enough to strike him right where it hurt. “I’ll make us some breakfast to settle your stomach while you finish it.”

“I don’t think anything will ever settle my stomach if I finish this,” he grimaced.

“Chop, chop,” Wooseok said, wandering off to make them something to eat that was probably going to be just as terrible.

He looked at the mixture and shook it, the odd rust colored liquid more frightening than anything he had ever tried to choke down in his life and that included his own memory soup. If it was good enough for Wooseok to be convinced it would help, then he would have to force himself to drink it, but that didn’t mean he had to savor it. He chugged the thick liquid until the glass was empty and almost dropped to his knees in disgust. “That was awful.”

“Yep,” Wooseok said, not turning around. “You’re not supposed to like it.”

“I got that,” he gagged. 

“You can go brush your teeth if that would help,” he offered.

“Do you care if I take a shower? I feel like I took a nap in a dumpster,” Seungyoun said.

“Go right ahead,” he said. “I would offer to wash your clothes for you, but I don’t think I have anything you would fit into.”

“That’s fine,” he said, stealing a whiff of his shirt that smelled like sweat and bar juice. This was not the ideal way to start off a relationship.

“Wait, I have your sweatshirt,” Wooseok said. “Of course. And I think I have some extra shorts that might work. They’ll just be a little snug on you.”

“Oh, thank you,” he said. “You don’t mind?”

“You won’t feel any better if you shower and change back into the same clothes,” he said, and then he laughed. “It’s  _ your _ sweatshirt.”

“Not anymore,” he said quietly before slipping out of the kitchen before the shame set in. He wasn’t sure what it was about Kim Wooseok that made him so hopelessly sappy, but he hoped it would never stop.

“I’ll put the clothes outside the door,” Wooseok called out with a twinge of amusement in his voice. 

“Thanks!”

He took a quick shower, the hot water loosening up his stiff muscles, and he would never give him credit for it, but his head was already feeling better. He would never drink again if it meant having to drink Wooseok’s disgusting pain juice, but he guessed that that was the point. Whatever it was, he learned his lesson.

He slipped on the clothes Wooseok had left for him and came back to the kitchen to the smell of hot home cooked food. 

“I’m back,” he said, feeling sheepish in Wooseok’s home while Wooseok cooked for him as his  _ boyfriend. _

Wooseok turned around and smirked, folding his arms across his chest and looking him up and down. “Oh how the tables have tabled.”

Seungyoun looked down at himself, in the exact same position Wooseok had been in only a day before. “It’s my shirt!”

“Not anymore,” Wooseok said cutely.

He smiled to himself, unable to say anything else about it, and without any teasing returned to him, Wooseok’s cheeks flushed and he hid himself away.  _ Oh my god. He’s so cute.  _ He walked over and draped himself over his shoulders.

“Am I too heavy,” he said quietly.

“Not at all,” Wooseok said, looking much tinier than usual. “I carried you in like this last night.”

“What’s this,” he asked, looking at the pans of food and avoiding his comment. Although all were dishes he recognized, he wanted to hear his voice say them out loud. He had gone a long time without hearing it, and he regretted every minute of it.

“A vegetable omelette and bacon,” he said. “It’ll help coat your stomach so you’ll feel normal again.”

Seungyoun hummed, accepting his explanation.

“Much like that greasy ass soup you made me eat yesterday,” Wooseok said.

“Hey now,” he laughed. “The soup served its purpose.”

Wooseok craned his neck to give him a kiss on the jaw. “I know, and I’m never eating it again.”

“Maybe we should both never drink like that again,” Seungyoun said.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Wooseok agreed. “Can you get some plates out? I’m almost done.”

He forced himself to pull away only because he was starving, and he was pretty sure Wooseok would have killed him if he made him burn his omelette. He would have still eaten it though since Wooseok made it…

_ I’m not whipped. I’m not. _

That was a thought he was going to have to keep to himself. No one needed to know how much he liked him yet. Not even Wooseok.

He set the table for the two of them, and once they sat together with plates of food, actually enjoying the morning in Wooseok’s home, he had to pinch himself to make sure that it wasn’t just a dream.

“What?” Wooseok said, noticing him staring.

“Is it just me or is this not weird,” he asked.

Wooseok drew his legs up to himself to get comfortable. “You’re right, it’s not weird.”

“Right?”

“That’s normal for you, isn’t it,” he asked. “I mean everyone is comfortable with you.”

“This is different for some reason,” Seungyoun said. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“It’s different?”

He hummed. “I feel…”

“Different,” Wooseok said. He propped himself forward with his chin resting on his palm, thinking quietly to himself. “I feel different too.”

“How so,” he asked, self conscious. 

“I don’t know, but I think it’s a good thing,” he said, turning his attention to his food. Seungyoun did the same, and they ate quietly, neither quite ready to process what different meant even though for the first time in their lives, different meant normal. Different meant fallen into place.

“What are we doing today,” he asked after being quiet for too long.

“Do you wanna stay in or go out?” Wooseok asked, not questioning at all that he meant for them to spend the day together again. 

“Both,” he said. 

Wooseok hummed, considering it. “We could do both.”

“Both could be good,” he said, already excited.

“We can stay here a bit while your clothes wash, go out for lunch, do some stuff, and come back?”

“Works for me.”

Wooseok bounced idly in his seat at the confirmation, unaware that he did it at all. Seungyoun felt his heart grow three sizes too big watching him get that happy over the prospect of spending more time together before eating quietly, enjoying the food he made himself while his large wire-rimmed glasses shifted on his nose as he chewed. 

He returned to his food before he could catch him staring again, and it was actually a pretty good breakfast. It eased his stomach, and his head wasn’t throbbing as much as it was earlier. He was sure that by the time his clothes dried, he would feel better enough for them to go out and spend the day together doing whatever it was that they wanted and enjoy it.

They cleaned up after their breakfast and found themselves on Wooseok’s couch, both too tired to do anything else. Was there any place better than a couch? He couldn’t think of one. 

“There’s no one in my seat this time,” Wooseok said, giggling enthusiastically.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, holding Wooseok firmly in his lap again.

“ _ Ya _ ,” Wooseok said weakly. Seungyoun hummed cheekily, squeezing him. He turned around and slid down so that his legs covered his lap instead and kissed him.

“I’m never going to get tired of that,” he said, almost out of breath already.

“If you do, I’ll fight you,” Wooseok said against his mouth.

He smiled, endeared. “You can’t even reach me.”

“I’m not that short!” He cried out, his voice straining as he poked a long finger against Seungyoun’s chest. 

“Yes, you are,” he said as he intertwined his fingers with Wooseok’s angry ones. 

“I’m the same size as Hangyul,” Wooseok whined.

“Hardly,” he said, kissing him from his cheek down his neck. “Look at how small you are.”

“Oh my god,” he said, half annoyed, half melting into butter in his hands.

“You were saying,” Seungyoun said, finding the softest skin on his neck right above his shoulder.

“I’m not,” he sputtered. “Tiny.”

He had to restrain himself, but Wooseok wasn’t doing a very good job of not encouraging him to keep going. He nipped his teeth at his skin, testing the waters, and Wooseok tilted his head back to help him. “You’re not stopping me.”

“Why should I?”

“What do you mean,  _ why should you?!”  _ he pulled back, stunned. 

Wooseok’s face flushed, worried he had said something wrong. “I didn’t know you wanted me to.”

“No, I don’t want you to,” he said, almost shouting, panicked. “I just don’t– I don’t–.”

He stopped him from blubbering with a kiss, taking the time to part his lips for him, and Seungyoun forgot what it was that he was complaining about. The only thing he wanted to stop was time so they could spend eternity together on that couch without needing to sleep or eat.

He slid his supporting hand up the back of Wooseok shirt to feel him closer, and Wooseok returned the gesture by tugging lightly and the hair at the nape of his neck.

“We can do this all day right?” He asked.

“Is that what we do? We eat, we makeout, we eat again, and then makeout some more?”

“Some might call that a hobby,” he said with a cheesy smile before taking Wooseok’s bottom lip in his mouth.

“Think of the money we’d save,” he said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “On going out on dates.”

“Oh, we’re still going out on dates,” he said. “That’s the eating part.”

“Wouldn’t that cut into the making out part?”

“Not if we’re careful.”

Wooseok snorted. He slid off of his lap and kissed his cheek affectionately and took his place next to him. He could get used to that too. He could get used to all of it. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired, but better,” he said.

Wooseok hopped up without a thought and rushed to the other side of the room and switched the lights off. “Find a show or something.”

“What are we doing?”

“I think after the weekend we’re had, we deserve a nap,” Wooseok said.

“I like the way you think.”

It didn’t take him long to find something they would both like for background noise, and once he had, Wooseok pulled him down on top of him to rest his head on his chest with a soft blue blanket draped over them. He took a deep breath to breathe him in and thought of all the times he had wanted to but never could, but now he could do whatever he wanted as much as he wanted to.

“Are you sniffing me,” Wooseok said quietly, already close to falling asleep.

“Yes,” he said softly.

“Just checking.”

Wooseok ran his fingers through his hair until they fell asleep, happy to waste the rest of their morning with each other doing absolutely nothing. The chest he rested on rose and fell calmly, completely relaxed, and it wasn’t long before he followed him closely behind. 

He fell into a deep sleep with peculiar dreams about getting lost in a convenience store, but other than that, he would have considered it to be one of the most energizing sleeps of his life if not for the unexpected way he had been woken up.

The sound of the latch made it into his dreams as a cash register money drawer opening, and it was time to pay. He held up two cans, one red and one green, but he didn’t have the money to pay for both. His hands stuck to the cans unable to let go, and he started to sweat, but there was a customer waiting in line behind him, and he had to hurry.

_ “Wooseok?”  _ the customer said.

_ I’m not Wooseok. Where’s Wooseok? _

_ “Hello?” _

He opened his eyes, awakened and startled. He looked up to see Seungwoo coming into the apartment, and upon the realization that he was still on top of Wooseok who his single active brain cell still associated with Seungwoo, he leapt up faster than a scared cat, caught in the act of taking a nap with a forbidden man.

“Oh hey, Seungyoun, I didn’t know you’d be here,” Seungwoo said quietly, unbothered and keeping his voice low as to not wake Wooseok, but it was too late. The force of Seungyoun’s momentary panic shook him awake.

“What are you doing here, Seungwoo,” Wooseok grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his face with his hands balled into fists not unlike two paws.  _ Oh god I do love him. _

“Go back to sleep, I won’t be but a minute,” he waved them both down.

“What?” Wooseok said, only one eye properly open.

“I’m out of food at my house, and I’m hungry,” he said.

“Yeah, sure,” he waved him off, and placed his sleepy head on Seungyoun’s shoulder. 

“Are you sure you aren’t dating,” he asked, half asleep and half amused.

“I’m sure,” Wooseok grumbled, slipping his arm around him. Seungyoun leaned back against the sofa so he could fall over completely and rest on his lap. He was sure he had gone back to sleep when Seungwoo came back with a bag of chips and a very  _ I’m not leaving  _ expression.

“What are you doing here,” Seungwoo whispered, sitting down on the floor across from him so they could talk while Wooseok napped. 

“I don’t really remember,” he said. “Apparently I pulled a Wooseok.”

“It worked out, I guess,” he said, gesturing towards the sleeping cat in his lap.

“Yeah, it did,” he looked down at him and smiled. He raised his hand to stroke his hair but stopped himself and dropped it onto his shoulder instead, not sure how to be affectionate in front of another person. Not sure how to be affectionate in front of Seungwoo. He frowned in thought, still unsettled, and looked up at him. “Are you okay with this?”

“Okay with what,” Seungwoo asked, crunching away.

“Me dating Wooseok,” he said.

“Of course,” he said as brightly as he could manage with a whisper. “But if you hurt him, I’ll have to kill you.”

“I respect that,” Seungyoun said. “But like… you don’t like him, right?”

Seungwoo made a face like someone had slid one of their hangover cures under his nose. “Oh, god no. Have you seen him when he’s drunk? He’s awful.”

“Yeah, I have,” he smiled to himself, Wooseok’s determined screaming still ringing in his ears.  _ Dumb drunk baby. _

“It took you long enough,” Seungwoo said, openly judging him. 

His own cheeks burned from having his life long crush exposed so nonchalantly by one of the people he was supposed to be hiding it from.

“I don’t think I did,” he said, ignoring the embarrassment.

“Really?” He said surprised before nodding. “Ah, yes, this would have been Wooseok’s idea. He’s not easy to say no to.”

“No, he isn’t,” Seungyoun said, remembering how he had to physically wrestle him down to tie him inside a sweatshirt for his own good.

“Why are you talking nonsense,” Wooseok grumbled, shifting on his lap to get comfortable.

“Shhh,” he said, patting him. “Go back to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep when you two are talking about me, I might miss something,” he said. “You came all this way to eat potato chips?”

“You didn’t have any leftovers,” Seungwoo said. 

“Oh my god, then cook something.”

“If I wanted to cook, I would have eaten my own food.”

_ So this is what they’re like.  _ When he met them in group situations, Wooseok clung to him in a way that made Seungyoun assume that they were a couple, but he had never once clung to Seungwoo the way he was to Seungyoun then in the presence of another person. And they talked like bickering siblings the way Seungyoun talked to Hangyul. He relaxed. Just best friends. A best friend who had a key to his house and liked to come over unannounced. He was going to have to keep that in mind for the future.

“What time is it,” Wooseok said, sitting back up.

“Lunch time,” Seungwoo answered with a clear goal in mind.

Wooseok exhaled. 

“Should we go get something to eat,” Seungyoun offered.

“I’m glad to see that one of you has good sense,” Seungwoo said, a shameless grin stretching from ear to ear.  _ He’s Wooseok’s Hangyul, isn’t he… _

Wooseok rolled his eyes and got up. “Let me dry Seungyoun’s clothes, and then we can go after.”

“What happened to your clothes?”

“They smell like a dumpster,” Wooseok said for him, walking away.

“Hey!” Seungyoun cried out.

Seungwoo, on the other hand, was quite amused by it. “I told you he’s awful.”

Seungwoo got up off the floor and sat next to him and grabbed the remote control to turn the volume up. 

“What are you watching?”

“I don’t know, we just put on something to go to sleep to,” he said.

“This late in the morning?” Seungwoo asked, judging him again.

“It’s been a long weekend,” he said.

Seungwoo hummed. “Got it.”

They were friends or at least friendly acquaintances, but the whole situation was so awkward it made his skin crawl. He silently begged for Wooseok to come back and break up the silence. He didn’t care how. He just needed the tension to go away so he could breathe.

“Wooseok’s favorite food is chicken feet,” he said quietly just for Seungyoun to hear.

“What?” 

“He eats like an old man, but chicken feet is his favorite,” he repeated. “I didn’t think you would have gotten to that yet.”

“We didn’t,” he said, blinking. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Wooseok came back not long after and looked back and forth at them, furrowing his brow. Without saying a word, he squeezed himself between them, forcing them both to move to the far ends on the couch so he could sit in the middle.

“What,” Wooseok asked, noticing the silence.

“Nothing,” they said at the same time.

_ What have I gotten myself into? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to read!!
> 
> I’ll try to finish the final part as soon as possible!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wooseok and Seungyoun spend the day with their friends while stealing moments with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends. It’s been a while right? I’m sorry for taking so long, and to make up for it I extended the story to four chapters.

Once Wooseok sat down, a wave of cold spread through him. He hadn’t expected Seungyoun to stay with him even if he had clearly hoped he would, and he was in this weird place where he wasn’t sure if this was a weekend fling brought on by careless partying or if Cho Seungyoun was actually his boyfriend or someone who one day could be. 

Wooseok teased him about it because Seungyoun said it first while being a dumb drunk crybaby, and saying it out loud didn’t embarrass him like he thought it would. The word didn’t hang onto his throat, too shy to come out, and the domesticity of their morning had almost made it feel real, but it was still up in the air. On top of that, they had made out all night in a youthful way, but after Seungyoun took him home, he didn’t even bother getting his number or mentioning future plans together. It was all too confusing and needed to be brought up at some point that day in one way or another so Wooseok would know where be stood. There was just a tiny problem. Seungwoo was there.

_ Ahhh, Han Seungwoo, your timing couldn’t get any worse, but why in the hell are you still here? I am clearly on a date! Kind of. _

He tried to ignore the crunching to his left to steal a glance at Seungyoun squeezed next to his right to gauge his reaction. Was he mad? Was he annoyed? Was he uncomfortable? Was he ready to pretend he had food poisoning and leave and never come back? He looked out of the corner of his eye, and Seungyoun sat back into the couch right out of his line of sight like he was avoiding his gaze. Wooseok’s stomach flipped because he knew his worries had been right, but then Seungyoun crossed his arms over his waist and slipped his fingers behind Wooseok’s back to touch him just subtly enough that it wasn’t openly affectionate in a way that might make Seungwoo uncomfortable. Wooseok mirrored the gesture and hooked his finger around his, smiling to himself.  _ Good, I’m just overthinking things, but still this had to be awkward for him. _

The sound of the dryer tumbling Seungyoun’s clothes was worse than a ticking clock. No one felt like speaking for some reason, and although secretly holding Seungyoun’s hand felt nice, he would have rather been able to fall back asleep with him because he was exhausted, and when Seungyoun didn’t smell like a dumpster from rolling around drunk in the gutter all night, he smelled like someone Wooseok needed to bury his face into to understand what breathing was supposed to feel like.

But surprisingly, it didn’t take long at all for Seungyoun to warm up to having Seungwoo as a third wheel because he seemed to be immune to being a third wheel. He somehow blended in while offering the two of them the space they needed even though he didn’t feel inclined to go home. 

When Wooseok was trapped with Yohan and Hangyul at Seungyoun’s house, there had been a reason. Seungyoun was trying to be respectful towards Seungwoo who for some reason felt like he was supposed to be included with whatever they were doing. But Wooseok was getting antsy.

“So we’re going out today,” Wooseok said, wishing that Seungwoo would bail while he still had the chance.

“Yes,” the two of them said at the same time. It was a confirmation, but it was terribly unhelpful on their part.

“What should we do?” he asked.

Seungyoun hummed, and it was still surreal to him that he was answering him. After years of never being acknowledged, Seungyoun was humming to consider his question and offer an opinion while gently brushing his fingertips against his palm. “I don’t really know the neighborhood.”

“We could stay in,” Seungwoo suggested.  _ No, we cannot. _

“I mean, we were going to get some fresh air anyways,” Seungyoun said, saving Wooseok.

“There’s a game room nearby,” Seungwoo said. “It’s like an arcade, but it’s got laser tag and a cart track.”

“That could be fun,” he said.

Wooseok huffed to himself.

“What’s wrong,” Seungyoun asked, not missing anything. Wooseok wondered if he had always noticed him that much.

Seungwoo laughed. “He’s mad because his feet don’t reach the pedals.”

“Shut up!” Wooseok cried out, but it was too late. Seungyoun was in a fit of giggles because he knew his secret. He felt two small hands grab his waist and squeeze.

“You’re so tiny,” he said, almost squealing.

“Stop this,” Wooseok said, wiggling free, but there wasn’t a part of him that wanted him to let go. “The carts are just too big!”

“We don’t have to ride in them,” he said fondly.

“They have two seaters,” Seungwoo pointed out, unphased by the gleeful wiggling next to him.

“Those are for children,” Wooseok pouted. 

“Is there a height restriction for laser tag?” Seungyoun asked, and Wooseok almost elbowed him, but he held back just this once.

“No,” he grumbled. “There’s not a height restriction for laser tag.”

“We should do that then,” Seungwoo said. “Should we call the guys?”

Wooseok went to open his mouth to protest, but Seungyoun said he should. Of course he did. He was nice. He was too nice, and now they had lost their whole day together. But it was okay. He has kissed him enough for a weekend, and if they stayed alone the whole time it might become too much like a dream. But still…

“Yeah, I think so too,” Wooseok added. Literally the worst thing he could do in that situation was alienate their friendships and make things weird, so if he had to sacrifice his much needed alone time for probably their last day together, so be it.

But it wasn’t their last day together, was it? 

They had accidentally spent the weekend together with a meltdown occurring in the few hours they didn’t, and Seungyoun was doing everything he could to cling onto Wooseok without being obnoxious. So what was the harm in spending a few hours with their friends anyway? 

Seungwoo called Hangyul who summoned Yohan, and while the two of them headed over to Wooseok’s place, Wooseok and Seungyoun changed into their outside clothes, climbing over each other in Wooseok’s tiny, cramped bathroom like they had lived together for months.

The tiny touches to his waist while he leaned over him to steal a hair produce sent shivers down his spine, and he wondered if he could ever get used to it. He wondered if he would ever want to get used to it.

“Is this okay with you,” he said quietly so that Seungwoo couldn’t hear. 

“Is what okay with me?” Seungyoun asked, genuinely confused.

“I don’t know, being here? Hanging out with our friends?”

“Are you asking me if I want to bail,” he said, sitting on the edge of the counter with his arms folded over his chest. Wooseok’s lips thinned, not wanting to say yes. Seungyoun sighed and shook his head. “I’ve been wanting to date you for years. What, do I have to wait until next weekend to start?”

Wooseok felt his cheeks burn, and he looked away. How could this dumb blubbering baby be so smooth when he wanted to be? How could he go from being shy and unsure if it was okay to even look at him to making Wooseok’s legs weak over the simplest question?

“No,” Wooseok said, averting his eyes. “You don’t have to wait.”

He hopped down quickly with a playful smile on his lips, and Wooseok expected him to stride out of the bathroom blissfully like nothing happened, but instead he went directly for him in one swift motion and scooped up the lower half of his face in his soft, unusually tiny hands and lowered his voice. “Is this okay with you?”

“Yes,” he whispered, looking up at him from his lips to his eyes that looked back at him fondly, not like how he looked at everyone else. There was joy and warmth and concern like he was holding someone made of glass, but nothing about Wooseok was fragile or needed to he handled with care. But if that was true, why did it feel like he was about to break into a million pieces if he ever looked away?

“What’s wrong?” He frowned, eyes darting back and forth at Wooseok’s, trying to gauge his reaction. 

Woosoek realized he must have been scowling so he softened his face into a smile and reached up to take one of his hands. He pulled it down to his side and pushed himself up to kiss him softly, giving himself butterflies in the process. This was driving him crazy how comfortable and nervous he was with Seungyoun all at the same time, but then Seungyoun’s cheeks and ears were a soft pink, and he nipped at his own lower lip idly like he was worried it was chapped. 

“Nothing,” he said. “Can we start today?”

Expecting him to be smooth and take complete control of him once again, Wooseok braced himself to get swept away, but instead he heard a soft sound come from deep inside Seungyoun’s throat like a strained squeal, and the dumb blubbering baby returned by slumping down onto Wooseok’s shoulder and burying his face into his neck.

“Okay,” Seungyoun said quietly.

Wooseok rolled his eyes up at the ceiling and wrapped his arms around him to help support him from completely falling over. “How can you be so  _ like that _ and so  _ like this  _ all at the same time?”

“Because I like you, jerk,” he said weakly, muffled by Wooseok’s skin. 

Wooseok closed his eyes and ran his fingers through the hair on the back of his head, ignoring the freshly applied product that stuck to his palm. He was never going to lose the warmth that spread through him, he was sure of it. He was never going to lose the buzz that radiated in his stomach as his breath tickled him. He was never going to let go of this person even in the worst of circumstances. He was never–

“Guys,” Seungwoo called through the bathroom door. “Not to interrupt whatever is going on in here, but Yohan said they’re almost here.”

Seungyoun pulled away first immediately, shaking himself and snapping out of it, and Wooseok could see the change on his face from rosy cheeked baby to social butterfly in an instance. Surprisingly, he even found that endearing because that meant that one side was meant for him alone, and he was completely okay with that. It wasn’t one he was willing to share with just anyone, anyway.

“We’re coming,” Wooseok shouted back, unable to take his eyes off of him.

“I hope not!” Seungwoo said, and the moment was completely ruined. Seungyoun grimaced and left the bathroom first, leaving Wooseok alone to kick and punch the air for having such a pain in the ass for a best friend.

But Seungyoun’s friends were just as terrible if not worse. Seungwoo, in his own way, had played matchmaker, but Hangyul, Seungyoun’s equivalent of Seungwoo, was absolutely determined to make fun of them by any means necessary.

“So you two spent the night together,” he said, making himself comfortable on the couch and wiggling his eyebrows.

Wooseok flared his nostrils. 

“It wasn’t like that,” Seungyoun said, folding his arms across his chest. 

“Then why is your face red,” Yohan pointed out.

Seungyoun reached up to touch his cheek. “I must be coming down with something.”

“I’m sure that’s what it is,” Seungwoo said, glaring at Wooseok.

“Honestly, he probably got sick rolling around in the parking lot upset because Hangyul and Yohan gave him the wrong phone number,” Wooseok said.

“That wasn’t my fault,” Hangyul cried out. “Blame that one on Yohan!”

“It’s not my fault if Seungyoun wrote down the wrong number,” Yohan said, jabbing the end of his finger into Hangyul’s chest which earned him a hearty swat from Seungwoo who was doing his best to micromanage the situation the best he could, but it wasn’t long before he joined in on the teasing.

“You know, when I showed up they were asleep together on the couch,” Seungwoo said, making Wooseok choke.

“Ya!” Wooseok said. “Who said you could come in?”

“Were they naked?” Hangyul asked, horrified.

Seungwoo grimaced and shook his head. “In their pajamas napping to a movie.”

_ “Awwww,”  _ Hangyul and Yohan said at the same time.

“Oh my god,” Wooseok said quietly to himself.

“Are you guys going to sit here and talk about our morning routine all day, or are we going to go get lunch,” Seungyoun finally spoke up.

“It’s ‘our’ already, huh,” Seungwoo said.

With that, Yohan and Hangyul stood up and moved towards the door at the speed of light while muttering something about how Wooseok should pay for their meal for defiling their friend in the early hours of the morning. He opened his mouth to protest, but Seungyoun gave him an annoying grin and followed them out.

“I didn’t!” Wooseok hissed.

“I believe you,” Seungwoo said, following Seungyoun out backwards and wiggling his eyebrows like he didn’t believe him at all.

The truth was that the second Seungyoun’s head hit the pillow after he finished crying about wishing Wooseok was his boyfriend, he was unconscious and drooling all over his new bedsheets, and once Wooseok was sure he was safe and wouldn’t hurt himself, he took his other pillow and a blanket out and slept on the couch.

Well, he would have slept if he could have. He spent most of the night staring up at the ceiling with his heart in his throat because no matter how much he knew this it wasn’t real, he desperately wanted it to be and he didn’t even know him that well.

“Are you coming,” Seungwoo asked, watching him stare off alone in his apartment.

“Yeah,” Wooseok blinked. “I’m coming.”

Lunch ended up being a trip to a couple of food carts around his neighborhood because no one could decide what they wanted, and Seungyoun promised to buy everyone meat later to make up for the fiasco he caused the night before under the condition that no one ever bring it up again, and Wooseok could see the urges to make fun of him eating Hangyul alive, but fortunately for both Seungyoun and Wooseok, Hangyul valued his satisfied appetite too much to spoil it by bringing up how absolutely embarrassing Seungyoun had been when he thought that Wooseok didn’t like him.

Wooseok smiled to himself. He liked him a lot, even if admitting that to himself was dangerous. He did, and he could stand to be made fun of just a little bit if it meant that maybe they could be together.

“So let me get this straight,” Yohan said. “This all started because Seungyoun ignored Wooseok, and Wooseok got upset and started crying in the club.”

Wooseok huffed. That wasn’t  _ exactly  _ it. 

“And so Seungyoun took him home because Seungwoo left him alone to cry it out, and then you two spent the whole day together after that,” Yohan continued, trying to connect the dots. Wooseok and Seungyoun nodded, both under fire. “And then Seungyoun had a meltdown at the  _ same  _ bar later  _ that  _ night because Wooseok ignored his calls.”

“Because you gave me the wrong number,” Seungyoun clarified before turning to Wooseok. “I did  _ not  _ have a meltdown. It wasn’t like that.”

“He cried,” Hangyul added.

“All night,” Wooseok sighed.

Seungyoun looked at him with his mouth agape, betrayed. Wooseok shrugged. He did cry all night like a little dumb drunk baby. That wasn’t Wooseok’s fault.

“And so Wooseok took  _ you  _ home, and now you’re what?” Yohan asked.

Wooseok and Seungyoun looked at each other.

“I didn’t know you would be so interested in who I’m dating, Yohan,” Seungyoun said with a slight snap to his voice.

“Ooh, they’re  _ dating,”  _ Hangyul teased. Seungwoo rolled his eyes.

“What’s your point,” Wooseok said, folding his arms across his chest.

Yohan coughed, a little afraid of Wooseok. “I just wanted to ask if anyone knew you two liked each other?”

Hangyul shook his head.

“I did,” Seungwoo said. “Wooseok never shuts up about him, and Seungyoun can’t keep his big googly eyes to himself.

“Shut up!” the two of them shouted at the same time. 

“Why are we talking about this,” Wooseok asked, mortified.

“Yeah, I think I’m not buying anyone meat tonight,” Seungyoun threatened. Hangyul gasped.

“I’ll buy everyone meat if it means we can keep bothering them,” Seungwoo said, propping himself up against a concrete barrier.

“I’m changing my locks,” Wooseok said, glaring at him.

“Good,” Seungyoun said quietly to himself, and Wooseok felt his cheeks burn. Were they going to have more sleepovers together? On purpose? Was he going to stay over enough that Seungwoo would have to call first before stopping by in case he  _ saw  _ something?”

“You know what, I think we should drop it,” Hangyul said, disgusted.

“I think you’re right,” Yohan grimaced.

“Great,” Wooseok said. “Aren’t we supposed to be doing something? Like playing games? Winning prizes? Leaving  _ us  _ alone?”

Seungwoo hummed. “We were going to play laser tag, but we have an odd amount of people.”

Seungyoun sucked his teeth. “You’re right. Should we call someone?”

“What about Yuvin,” Wooseok suggested.

Hangyul’s eyes darted from Wooseok to Yohan. “He’s probably busy, right?”

“I don’t think he is,” Seungwoo said, pulling out his phone to contact him. Wooseok looked at Hangyul and furrowed his brow.  _ That was strange.  _ “Ah, but he’ll want to bring Kookheon, and we’ll be uneven again.”

“There’s always Byungchan,” Seungyoun suggested. “You guys are close, right? Or Jinhyuk. It’s not like we don’t have a hundred people to choose from.”

“You can’t afford to feed that many people,” Hangyul pointed out, shifting his weight on his feet.

“The others will pitch in,” Seungwoo said before teasing him. “You two are the only freeloaders in group.”

Yohan gasped.  _ “Us?!” _

“Yes, I literally always have to pay for everything when I’m with you two,” Seungyoun said. “But maybe we can just ask one person in case the others can’t come so it won’t be too complicated.”

Wooseok twisted his mouth. Was he the only one who noticed what was going on?  _ Wow, we  _ are _ all a bunch of clowns.  _

“Byungchan could work,” Wooseok said, watching Hangyul’s face soften.

Hangyul turned his attention towards Yohan and started annoying him while Seungwoo messaged Byungchan to see if he could come join them.

By the time he confirmed that he could, Seungwoo noticed that Hangyul and Yohan were off playing by themselves and walked towards Seungyoun and Wooseok who were still somewhat awkward with each other.

“So Byungchan is coming,” Wooseok asked.

“Mhm, he said he’ll be here in thirty minutes,” he said.

“Everyone has a partner then,” Seungyoun said cheerfully. 

Wooseok swallowed. He realized that he was going to be on a team with Seungyoun. His partner. Seungyoun was his partner.

What if they didn’t work well together? How the  _ fuck  _ was he supposed to win a game without Seungwoo?!

As it turned out, Wooseok’s accidental but not very accidental date was good at  _ everything,  _ because of course he was. While the group waited on Byungchan, Seungyoun, Yohan, and Seungwoo got into a little competition with each other over the skee-ball games at the arcade while Wooseok and Hangyul wandered off together to look at the prizes.

Even though Hangyul was just as competitive as the others (admittedly, so was Wooseok), it felt necessary to get away from them before someone got hurt.

“That cat looks like you,” Hangyul said, pointing up at the top rack with the plushies. 

“It’s a curse,” Wooseok sighed. “It’s cute though.”

Hangyul frowned. “I wasn’t calling you cute.”

“I know, I was,” he said with a smile. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, why,” he asked.

“You got weird after I said we should call Yuvin,” Wooseok said. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t do something that upset you. Are you guys on bad terms?”

Hangyul laughed, his babyish teeth showing. “No, you didn’t. I’m fine, I promise.”

Wooseok exhaled and looked over his shoulder at the others. He knew he shouldn’t say anything, and he was grossly crossing a line for interfering, but if Seungwoo hadn’t grossly interfered with his life, he wouldn’t have that growing warmth in the pit of his stomach every time Seungyoun shrieked from behind them when he scored in the middle ring. 

“You should talk to him,” Wooseok said.

“Who?”

“Yohan,” he said. 

Hangyul’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He shook his head.

“Why not,” Wooseok asked.

“He doesn’t like me,” Hangyul said. “He gets all excited when he sees Yuvin. I’m not stupid.”

“He doesn’t like Yuvin,  _ like that,”  _ he assured him. “At least, I’ve literally never heard a word of them hanging out when you or Kookheon weren’t there with them, but somehow you and Yohan are never separated?”

Hangyul hummed like he wanted to pretend to agree so Wooseok would stop talking about it, but if there’s one thing no one could do was stop Wooseok from doing anything he wanted.

“If Yohan liked Yuvin he  _ probably  _ would have tried harder to get him to come,” Wooseok said quietly, eyeing the three playing skee-ball. Hangyul’s eyes followed, and Yohan turned around and scanned the arcade for him, but once he spotted him he smiled brightly and waved.

“I won!” Yohan called out. “Pick out one of the 50 ticket toys!”

“Yes, he doesn’t like you,” Wooseok said. “That’s why he won you a prize and told you to pick it out.”

“It’s because we’re best friends,” he said.

“Oh?” Wooseok asked before marching back to their friends.

“Where are you going!”

“Follow me,” he called back. “Seungwoo, give me your tickets.”

“No!” He jerked his hand back in disgust. “What are you doing?”

“Proving a point,” Wooseok said. He turned back to Hangyul and raised his eyebrows.

“I got it,” he said through his teeth.

“What, do you need tickets?” Seungyoun patted his jacket pockets like he meant to give any he had to him without question.

Wooseok’s heart flipped. “Oh, I was just showing Hangyul how selfish and unhelpful Seungwoo is.”

“Hey!” Seungwoo frowned. “You can’t just go around assassinating my character like this!”

“You’re the one who said no to giving me all your tickets in front of everyone!” Wooseok shouted. “Who’s assassinating who!”

“You!” Seungwoo started, but before they could hash it out between the air hockey table and the dance machine, Byungchan appeared to neutralize the situation just in time.

“What are they fighting about?” he asked.

“Seungwoo won’t give Wooseok his tickets,” Yohan said.

“Why doesn’t he win his own tickets?”

Wooseok blinked.  _ This is not the point I was trying to make. _

“I tried to give him mine,” Seungyoun grumbled.

“Yeah, take his,” Seungwoo said pointedly.

“Oh my god,” Wooseok rubbed his temples. “I’m gonna go help Hangyul pick out his prize. You wanted the cat right?”

“But Yohan only gave me fifty,” Hangyul said pitifully.

“Come on,” he grabbed his arm and pulled him away, feeling like someone had dumped a bucket of water over his head. Once they got an acceptable distance, Wooseok turned to scold him. “Now everything thinks I’m crazy.”

“You’re the one who tried to take Seungwoo’s tickets,” he said, baffled.

“To show  _ you  _ that Yohan didn’t just give you his because he’s your best friend, you idiot,” he hissed.

“Is everything okay?” Seungyoun asked, appearing behind them.

“Everything’s fine!” the two of them chimed, forcing smiles.

He looked at them both and furrowed his brow.

“Hangyul likes Yohan, and I was trying to prove that Yohan likes him back,” Wooseok blurted out.

“With Seungwoo’s tickets?”

“Yes,” he said. “Kind of.”

“He does like him,” Seungyoun said. “Everyone knows that.”

“Thank you,” Wooseok folded his arms across his chest. “Wait, how do you know that?”

“Yeah, how do you know that,” Hangyul asked.

“I know everything,” Seungyoun said confidently.

“You didn’t know I liked you,” Wooseok said, and then he felt himself flush for being so open about it in front of Hangyul.

“That’s because I thought you were dating Seungwoo,” he frowned. “I was trying to be a nice guy, remember.”

“Yeah, but if you knew everything, wouldn’t you know that Seungwoo likes Byungchan?” Hangyul pointed out.

“What?!” Wooseok and Seungyoun said.

“Isn’t that why you invited him,” Hangyul asked, flabbergasted.

“I merely offered the suggestion,” Seungyoun said, crossing his arms. “Seungwoo is the one who invited him.”

Wooseok opened his mouth to rebut because obviously nothing about Hangyul’s argument made sense, but he technically wasn’t wrong. Seungyoun, who he at some point moved closer to, looked just as puzzled as he did. 

Hangyul smirked. “I’m right.”

“No???” Wooseok and Seungyoun said.

Hangyul hummed to himself and sauntered over to the ticket redemption booth to pick out his prize, happily bobbing his head along the way.

“I’m glad we’re not that complicated,” Seungyoun said in disbelief.

“Yeah, it just took us ten years to figure shit out,” Wooseok sighed. 

Seungyoun looked down at him and frowned. “I was trying to be a good friend to Seungwoo.”

“I know,” he said, taking his hand while they had a moment alone. “They’ll probably figure it out eventually.”

He hummed and kissed him on top of the head, making Wooseok’s chest tighten. “Do you want a prize?”

Wooseok shook his head, more a fan of earning his own toys, but he was too busy trying to take care of Hangyul to play.

“What about the cat,” he pointed up. “It looks just like you.”

“It’s 300 tickets,” Wooseok sighed before hearing Seungyoun make a sound like he was going to choke. 

“Alright then,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“How many do you have,” he laughed.

“Twenty seven,” Seungyoun said.

Wooseok hummed. “We’d have to come here every Sunday for the next six months if we want to win anything.”

“We could do that,” he said. “If you want.”

“Do you like arcade games that much,” Wooseok laughed.

“Maybe,” he said, walking away towards the others. “Maybe I just like who I would get to play with.”

Wooseok rolled his eyes, already immune to Seungyoun’s mischievous sweet talking. If immune meant that he had butterflies in his stomach but still partial use of his legs. He was definitely unaffected by any of the words that came out of Seungyoun’s mouth which is why he stood there dumbly, feet planted in place as the others congregated without him.

The laser tag room was towards the back of the arcade. An attendant waited at a desk with a sign up sheet next to a menacing digital clock that counted down to the end of the current round. When the clock hit zero, the six of them were the only names scribbled onto the clipboard, and the ten person group ahead of them came out with a mixture of laughter and arguing over who  _ really  _ won and the faint stench of sweat and hot plastic.

Wooseok did his best to hide his own excitement, but Hangyul and Yohan were practically vibrating next to him. Seungwoo and Seungyoun were shit talking each other’s strategy, and Byungchan was taking a selfie.

The digital clock timer started again giving them fifteen minutes to use the bathroom, get a snack, change into their own private darkroom camouflage gear, or whatever they had to do, and once it hit zero again, there was a sharp whir like compressed hair released from a valve near the door. The attendant grabbed the sprayed chrome lever and jerked it down, and the main door to the chamber creaked open. It was all rather elaborate, but it added a sense of thrill that made Wooseok’s teeth chatter.

One by one they walked into a pitch black room, reaching for each other to figure out their surroundings. Once the door shut behind them, a row of black lights on the walls and ceiling clicked on revealing antiquated orange and green geometric patterns on the carpet beneath their feet, seven sets of glowing white teeth, and a row of black laser tag armor and weapons with orange and green reflective accents.

“Welcome everyone,” the attendant said. “You will have ten minutes to split into two teams before entering the arena. The orange team will defend the eastern base that houses a secret intergalactic military supply hub crucial for protecting Planet X from invaders. The green team will act as the invading force entering from the western base — Mothership One. The green team’s objective is to infiltrate the orange team’s base and shoot up at the target five times to end the round. The orange team’s objective is to defend Planet X until the end of the twenty minute round, but the round will end automatically if members of the orange team can locate and destroy the five active enemy ship targets hidden around the arena.”

After a breath, the attendant continued. “Each base contains a charging hub for your weapons exclusive for your team, but there are two neutral charging stations on the north and south ends of the map. Use them with caution. Each laser gun holds ten charges, but every time an enemy player hits your chest target, you lose two charges, and one if the player hits your back.

“There is no running allowed in the arena or rough physical contact. If you break either of these rules, the game will end, and your team will be escorted from the arena with an automatic loss. Are there any questions?”

“Yeah, do you have all this written down,” Hangyul said.

“Green team attacks the big orange target, and the orange team defends it,” Seungwoo said. “Don’t get shot.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Any other questions?”

“What constitutes rough physical contact,” Yohan asked.

“No fighting, no punching, no hitting other players with your rifle.”

“Got it,” the group said because it was important for them to know that they weren’t allowed to smack each other with their guns.

“If that’s it then, we’ll go ahead and start the timer,” the attendant said before pushing a button on a wall.

“Welcome champions,” a robotic woman’s voice said loudly over the speakers. “Please choose a side.”

“That’s it?” Byungchan said, looking up.

“I guess they didn’t feel like writing a backstory,” Wooseok said. 

“How do we split up teams,” Seungyoun asked, counting the group with his finger.

“How else do we decide anything,” Hangyul said.

Rock paper scissors with six people was too much of a nightmare without a time limit, and unfortunately, they actually did have a time limit where they were supposed to gear up and get ready to annihilate each other in a mock intergalactic showdown so they narrowed it down to just rock and paper until they were split into two teams of three.

Regrettably, Wooseok was separated from Seungyoun,  _ who was the sole reason he was out of his apartment on a Sunday,  _ on a team with Seungwoo and Byungchan, but luckily for him, he and Seungwoo were basically lifelong teammates already and he wasn’t caught in the middle of Hangyul and Yohan who Seungyoun was quite used to mediating anyways.

Wooseok strapped himself into the black and orange body armor, ready to defend the base. It was heavier than it looked, bearing down on his shoulders, and the gun that hung from a strap across his body was made of a large and clunky plastic. If there was one thing he was sure of, there would be no sneaking around. Every movement was loud and awkward, and the six of them sounded like someone had dropped a box of wooden shoes when they approached their respective doors.

The woman on the overhead speaker started the game by sending them down two separate darks halls into the arena. Wooseok’s heart raced, and he reached out for Seungwoo out of habit.

“This is so cool,” Byungchan whispered, and Wooseok yanked his hand back, remembering what Hangyul had said just in case it was true. He wouldn’t want to mess up a golden opportunity. Actually, this was perfect because the only people who needed setting up were on teams together, and he and Seungyoun could just make up for whatever this was later.

“Maybe we can come back again,” Seungwoo said. 

Wooseok blinked. Maybe Hangyul was on to something after all, but he was still terribly dense for thinking Yohan liked Yuvin. He shook his head. This was all getting too complicated to keep up with.

They opened the door at the end of the hall and entered the orange team’s base with one goal in mind: to defend for the win. The base was still closed because the teams were getting into place, and Wooseok found himself pacing around impatiently like a cat locked inside a cage. Seungwoo and Byungchan were busy looking up at the mock space hub interior that glowed intensely with the blacklights positioned all around the arena.

The voice over the speaker started a countdown from ten, and once it reached one, the attendant who was hiding in the shadows for safety reasons, opened the gate and secured it with a latch to prevent the orange team from closing it and cheating.

The first person to breach the barrier was Yohan who quickly took five rounds of laser beams to the chest and was out of ammunition before he could shoot up at the target. He pouted and sighed. “Can I refuel here?”

“No,” the three of them said. He looked over his shoulder and pouted again as he left. 

“That was kind of easy,” Byungchan said, disappointed.

“I think they want us to leave and go look for the smaller targets to make it more of a challenge,” Seungwoo said.

“I’ll go!” Wooseok said, eager to give them some space, but also to find Seungyoun if just to fire at him. It was his fault for being such a large target.

He wandered around for a while as quietly as he could looking for the overhead targets. He guessed with some luck they would be around the perimeter, but he never anticipated just how  _ loud _ his laser gun was out in the silent arena.

He put his back against the wall and held his breath as someone came looking for him. The figure was tall and broad, and even with the faint green glow around his neck and target, Wooseok knew it was Seungyoun. He raised his gun cautiously and aimed for his back.  _ God, this is hot. _

Seungyoun stopped in his tracks, his back facing him, and raised his rifle upon hearing the heavy clack of Wooseok’s armor. Wooseok pressed his back into the wall and waited, hopeful that if the orange glow caught his eye, he would think it was part of the arena.

He turned a corner to hunt for him, and Wooseok had a thought. He tiptoed carefully after him and reached around the corner to grab his wrist. 

“Shh,” Wooseok said, hearing him gasp. “It’s just me.”

“What are you doing here,” he whispered as the two of them ducked behind a triangular pillar.

“I’m playing laser tag,” he whispered back. 

“Why didn’t you shoot me,” he said quietly.

“Because I was afraid you’d call for backup,” he lied.  _ I was too busy staring at your back in the weird alien body armor and wondering what you looked like without it.  _

“That’s true, you would have been dead meat,” he said. “I should hand you over.”

Wooseok realized he was still holding onto him and slid his hand up his arm. “We could let the four of them figure it out for a few minutes. Maybe.”

Seungyoun raised his eyebrows, catching on. He slid his hands under Wooseok’s jaw, the tips of his fingers catching his ears, sending a shiver down his spine. “This really is a game meant for like twenty people.”

“It’s almost too bad we’ve got the whole arena to ourselves,” Wooseok said as he hovered over his mouth.

“We may have to spend the full twenty minutes chasing each other around at this rate,” Seungyoun said, his voice cracking inches from Wooseok’s face.

Wooseok’s hands went to the back of his neck and pulled him down to him, and with a gasp, his own back hit the arena wall. 

“Does this count as rough physical contact,” he whispered before taking Seungyoun’s bottom lip between his teeth.

He hummed, not really caring if they got kicked out or not as the kiss deepened. “We’ve really gotta find a way to bail.”

“Mhm,” Wooseok hummed before parting his mouth to invite Seungyoun to slip his tongue in between his teeth before hearing the rattle of plastic as one of their friends approached. “We’re going to get caught.”

Seungyoun pulled away with a sigh, his lips swollen and his eyes glazed over. “I don’t know if they’d ever get over this.”

Wooseok wiped his mouth. “They wouldn’t.”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” he said, raising his gun.

Wooseok gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“You should have fired when you had the chance,” he said, unleashing four rounds into Wooseok’s chest. “I left you two shots in case you run into Hangyul and Yohan. Don’t waste them.”

He winked before slipping off into the shadows to rejoin his team, and Wooseok was left alone, fuming with a racing heart.  _ How dare he kiss me like  _ that _ and then shoot me! _ But god did it feel good to kiss him.

Wooseok had two choices. He could either return to his base and deal with the possibility that they might figure out that he lost all his ammo because he was busy making out with the enemy, or he could find a charging station and take out all of the green team’s targets for revenge. He already found two of them… he was sure he could find the rest.

After a few minutes of sneaking, he ended up in a shootout with Hangyul, but he was out of charges. Like the demon he was, he followed Wooseok to the charging station and propped himself up against the wall while his laser gun reloaded.

“Wooseok and Seungyoun sitting in a tree,” Hangyul sang.

“What?”

“K-i-s-s-i-n-g,” he teased.

Wooseok raised his gun and pointed it at his chest. “Do you wanna die?”

“Honestly, if it wasn’t Seungyoun whose back was turned towards us, Yohan and I would have totally lit you guys up,” he said. “Such a wasted opportunity.”

Wooseok’s cheeks burned. “You saw that?”

“We heard it first,” he said with a frown. Wooseok’s eyes widened in horror. “Honestly, you couldn’t have waited until you got home? Disgusting!”

“Did you tell Yohan you like him yet?” Wooseok fired back.

Hangyul’s smug expression dropped. “You know I can’t do that.”

“When you get brave, you can tease me,” he hissed.

“Fine,” he hissed back.

“Fine!”

The game, as it turned out, was pretty boring with only six people. If it had been more of a skirmish, they probably would have enjoyed it more, but since all Byungchan and Seungwoo had to do was camp out next to their charging station and shoot down whoever ran into their base, it was mostly just twenty minutes of Yohan and Hangyul getting frustrated while Wooseok and Seungyoun found other things to do.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games with stolen touches between the two people who were supposed to spend the day together, but had that chance snatched away in the blink of an eye. But it was more fun that way, Wooseok discovered. 

He found a certain level of thrill and boldness within himself every time they were moments away from getting caught. His whole body tingled from the game they played that no one else could see, and by the time the arcade was full of a group of hungry bellies, he felt like his whole body was on fire. All they had to do was get through dinner and then… he hadn’t quite thought of that yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are tough now, but oneits are strong. As long as we stick together and fight for our boys, we can get through this. I love you all, and once again, thank you for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much taking the time to read this!!! Please let me know if you enjoyed it!!!


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